The Seahorse Effect
by sierra.steinbrecher
Summary: Yoda looked at the young man with the baby in his arms. "Test him we will. But first, tell us you must why you hide, that your son, he is." Anakin glared back. Don't own Star Wars. Mpreg
1. The Vision

Anakin jolted awake and quickly looked over to where Padme had been sleeping next to him. Relieved, he let his head fall back into the pillow for a moment. It was alright, she was safe, it was just a dream. _But I never have just dreams,_ he mourned internally. He slipped out from under the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed, resting his elbow on his bent knee and putting his forehead in his mechanical hand.

"Ani?" a hesitant voice asked from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw his wife also getting up. He must have woken her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he replied.

She frowned at him. "Anakin, we've talked about this. You have to be honest with me, especially when something's upset you."

"It was just a dream," he protested.

She crawled cross the bed and ran a hand over his shoulders. "Tell me anyway."

He shook his head. "It was like the dreams I used to have about my mother."

Her hand paused momentarily on his back as Padme realized what he meant. Then she resumed and asked, "What did you see, Ani?"

Bluntly, he answered. "You die in childbirth."

"And the baby?" The hand lifted from his back and he had a feeling she was pressing her stomach. He'd seen her doing that all day and it had given him joy unlike anything he'd felt before, even on the days following their wedding. But now it just made him draw further into his ball.

"I don't think they made it." Anakin leaned down over the bed, running his flesh hand through his short curls. Putting his mechanical hand in his hair never turned out well, but it wasn't nearly as painful as what he'd just seen. He'd watched Padme, his beloved, his queen, in such pain, and when it had ended, there'd been nothing. No cry of a newborn, no one rejoicing over the new life. Just his dead wife. His stomach flipped at the thought. "I lose you, them…everyone."

She stopped running her hands over his back and hugged him close. "It will be alright," she whispered soothingly into his ear. He reached out with the Force and nudged her presence to gather some of her calm for himself. Fear, hot and roiling, nearly bowled him over.

He pulled away from her, staring. "You don't really think that." She went to protest but he continued on. "You're afraid, I can feel it. So why are you lying to me? You always say to be honest with each other." He stood up, crossing the room. "You are the one person I thought would never lie to me. Why?" His voice rose until he almost shouted the last words. Obi-Wan, the Council, they'd all lied to him. They lied because they didn't trust him. Was it the same with her? Did she also mistrust him, his own wife?

He turned to face the window, looking out over the sky traffic, fists curling and uncurling. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, he let the Force siphon off his anger and calm his rage back to a mere simmer. He turned back to Padme sitting on the bed still, though her arm was outstretched, as if to call him back. "Why are you scared," he asked.

She looked down for a moment before meeting his eyes, and this time they matched the turmoil he'd sensed. Her hands drifted towards her stomach where her, no, their child rested. Their child, who would be in danger soon if Anakin's vision held any shred of truth. "I'm scared because even if I died, I could still be happy knowing the baby would live," she whispered, and he understood. "I'm scared that they might never get to live. They're not even two months old yet." She looked back up at him. "And I lied because I wanted to comfort you, and because one of us has to be strong." She paused and took a deep breath. "And also because I don't want you to be afraid, because I've seen what happens to you when you're afraid."

"What do you mean?" he demanded.

She looked away from him. "The last time you were afraid like this, you found your mother tortured and killed everyone who did that to her. Ani, I remember how broken you were after that, about your mother and about what you did." She looked back up at him. "I don't want that to happen to you again, Anakin. I'm not a Jedi, but I think acting like you did isn't good for you and I don't want that to happen to you."

He remembered that time, and knew she was right. He'd been letting his fear cloud everything. How many times had Obi-Wan chastised him for that before? He let his fear drain into the Force and walked back over to the bed. Anakin sat down beside her again and gently placed a hand over hers where it rested on her belly. At little more than a month, there was nothing there yet to show the precious burden she carried, but he still smiled. "You don't have to be afraid, Padme. I won't do that again. There's something else I can do, though." He took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm going to find a way to save you, both of you." Then he kissed her sweetly, savoring her soft lips after almost a month of separation. If she could be strong, he would be too. Hadn't he always wanted to be strong enough to save those he loved from dying? Hadn't he said that after his mother died? Well now was the time to prove he could.

 **May the Fourth be with you! As a lover of the Mpreg genre, I've seen it take many different forms, but I have always loved best the stories where conception occurs naturally but something happens to the mother and a different carrier is needed. And also, since as a Catholic I do not believe acting on homosexual tendencies is a good and holy thing to do (feel free to debate this if you wish, but please no flames) I decided that, if I was to write one of these stories, I'd have to do it my favorite way. So here we are!**

 **I just picked Star Wars because I really hated the third movie and felt like things could have turned out a whole lot better if Anakin had focused his intense passion into a different avenue to save Padme and the twins.**

 **Also, in this story, Anakin finds out about her pregnancy much sooner, in case you missed that little tidbit. Basically, he was in the Temple when she found out and so he was able to tell her right away.**

 **Please review and tell me what you thought! This is my first Star Wars story and I'm only going off the movies and what I've learned from reading other people's stories.**


	2. First Inclinations

_Why did I have to get sent out on a mission now?_ Anakin fumed. _I have enough to deal with already, with Padme and the baby. And they just_ had _to partner me with Obi-Wan._

"-have to be careful, especially with this time of…Anakin, are you listening to me?"

Anakin jerked out of his dark thoughts to Obi-Wan's annoyed expressions. "What?"

The older Jedi huffed. "Ani, I've been talking to you for the past ten minutes. Have you heard anything that I've said?" He shrugged and Obi-Wan had a great desire to simply bang his head against the dinner table. Instead, he took a deep breath and continued. "I was saying that we have to keep the battle away from the lakes and other water sources."

The younger Jedi suppressed the urge to growl as he asked, "Why? Is there an endangered species there or something?"

Obi-Wan frowned at his old apprentice's flippant tone and answered very seriously, "As a matter of fact, yes. It's a very delicate time in the breeding cycle of the planet's only sentient population."

But Anakin was not impressed. "So what, they don't want our cannons interrupting their mating dance?"

"Anakin, it's far more serious than that. If we interrupt the transference, an entire generation could die." _Finally,_ Obi-Wan sighed inwardly as he watched the flippancy leave the other's face. _He seems to understand somewhat now._

But something entirely different was running through Anakin's mind. "Obi-Wan, what is the transference?"

Encouraged by his interest, the master continued. "It's the time when the females transfer the unborn children to their male counterpart's body. Anakin, are you alright?" His friend had gone pale.

Anakin released his grip on his fork and took a deep breath. "Yes, Obi-Wan." He tried to appear merely curious as he asked," What exactly does this transfer entail?"

Still a bit concerned, the older Jedi said, "Mace gave me a datapad on the subject before we left. I can give you that, if you want."

Keeing a tight lid on anything beyond casual curiosity, Anakin replied. "That sounds good." Obi-Wan got up from the table to go get it. As soon as he was out of sight, Anakin leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. In his vision, Padme had died in childbirth. He was going to protect her and the child, but he'd thought that meant from outside threats. _But it might be from the birth itself._ If he could stop the labor from ever happening by removing the baby, it would save her. _And if I can put them into a mechanical uterus or something, I can keep the baby too._ He could keep his whole family safe. And the fearful Dark receded from him as idea after idea whirled through Anakin's mind.

A few days later, when they landed at the location of their mission, all thoughts of Padme and the baby were forcibly shoved out of Anakin's head the minute the gangway dropped and the two Jedi saw the troop commander waiting for them with a platoon. "Welcome, Generals," the man said. He removed his helmet and stepped forward to shake their hands. "I'm Captain Andrew Kater. We've been waiting for you."

Obi-Wan let go of the man's hand with a smile. "Well, we're here now. What's the situation," he asked. Might as well get right down to business.

Apparently, Captain Kater agreed. "We've set up a briefing for you, if you'd just follow me." They quickly marched out of the main hanger into a smaller but still sizeable room. The Captain approached a large table in the middle of the room and pressed a button on the side.

Instantly, a topographical map of the surrounding area covered the tabletop. Blue dots in small concentrations peppered the map while one area, a small island by the look of things, was covered with a large group of red dots. Captain Kater pointed at the red mass. "The Separatist ship landed here five days ago and has been steadily unloading droid battalions. We haven't been able to attack because they threatened to start firing into the water." He hit another button and a different map overlaid the first one. Colored blotches covered the map, with the droid landing site smack in the middle of a blue area. The captain gestured at the blue spot. "This area is where the Hippocampini conduct the Transference, and are currently gathered there in high concentrations. The droids have essentially taken the entire race hostage."

Obi-Wan studied the problem, but something irked him. "How did the droids know to target this area?"

The captain looked at him. "They have a general from the Trade Federation with them. They'd the one who planned this."

"And the Transference can last up to a month, depending on how many couples are involved. The Separatists can get a pretty big army here before the threat's gone." Anakin added. When he looked up, Obi-Wan was staring at him, somewhat surprised. "What? It was interesting."

But Captain Kater just nodded. "We can't afford to wait that long. We were hoping," he continued, looking at the two Jedi imploringly, "you might have a solution." Obi-Wan braced his hands on the edge of the table and leaned over the map. _If that single general is the one planning this, we could handle them and the situation would be resolved._ "Do we know how the droids are getting their orders," the older Jedi asked.

Captain Kater hit a few more buttons and an aerial picture of the island covered the table. "We've done some nocturnal reconnaissance flights. There's a small transmitter at the center of the camp." He pointed to a large structure in the middle of the photo. "Based on intelligence from previous encounters, we think the general is orbiting the planet and sending orders through the transmitter."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Captain, do you have any stealth speeders on this base?"

"Yes sir."

Anakin made eye contact with his old master and one corner of his mouth twisted up in a slight smirk. Obi-Wan looked back and the same mischief played in his eyes.

They were both planning the same thing.

 **Here I am with the second chapter! The Hippocampini are based on seahorses, hence the name of this story. Do you begin to see what I have in mind? And I've always hated those stories where one aspect of it, like the romance or the action, takes over the story, so I'm trying not to do that, hence the briefing and action coming up in the next chapter.**

 **Also, would anyone like to Beta this for me? I don't have anyone for that yet.**

 **Please review, and thanks to those who already did!**


	3. Stealth Mission

The base's stealth speeded was really something. Sleek in body, but painted a matte black that didn't reflect light and make it easier to spot, it had an open cockpit and seating area. Both Jedi currently huddled there in dark clothes and with their light saber hilts covered in black cloth to blend in with the rest of the uniform. Hopefully they wouldn't need to use them, but neither Jedi ever counted on luck.

"We're right over the center of the camp," said the Stormtrooper pilot through the tiny ear pieces each person in the speeder had tucked into their ears, even though Anakin and Obi-Wan preferred telepathic communication when they talked to each other. "Let down the ropes."

"Yes sir," one of the soldiers in the seats answered. He grabbed a coil of thin black cord and flung it over the side, letting it unwind in the air. "Rope is set," he confirmed as he kept hold of the other end and tied it to a handle bolted into the side of the speeder. Gripping the rope tightly for extra security, the trooper motioned to the two Jedi.

Anakin and Obi-Wan nodded and went over to where the rope dangled off the edge of the speeder. Obi-Wan climbed over the rim of the seating area and, gripping the rope with his hands and booted feet, began a controlled slide to the ground below. Anakin waited, ready to climb over the rim. _I've landed._ The thought was saturated with the older man's Force presence and Anakin nodded to the waiting troopers, confirming that Obi-Wan was alright. Then he climbed over the rim and slid down himself.

He touched down lightly and Obi-Wan grabbed his arm. _This way,_ came another thought. Anakin answered an affirmative and they moved from where they'd landed, right behind the command structure. That Stormtrooper pilot was a pretty good flyer. When they got to the front of the tent, they saw two droids guarding the entrance. He reached for his saber.

Obi-Wan put a hand on his arm. _Not yet,_ he sent. Slowly, the master reached out with the Force to one of the dark alleys created by the rows of droid charging units. He felt a crate of spare parts and knocked it over with a gentle Force push.

There was a clatter and both droids turned to look. "What was that?" one asked in its monoton, metallic voice.

The other droid leaned forward. "Go see," he ordered. The first droid left to go check and Obi-Wan reached out again. A clatter sounded in a different alley. Looking around once, the other guard went to look and the two Jedi slipped into the structure. They were in luck. It was empty. _Start looking,_ Obi-Wan thought to Anakin, including with the message the image of what they were looking for. Anakin sent back the mental equivalent of an eye roll and the two split up to look.

A few minutes later, Anakin contacted his partner. _I found the main transmitter,_ he sent, including the image of what he saw. An unexpected burst of satisfaction came back. _That's the same kind that they used in the Battle of Naboo! Can you dismantle it?_

 _Yes,_ Anakin responded. _Just give me a few minutes to-_

"Intruders," said a dull voice from the entrance. Obi-Wan cursed under his breath. They'd been found! But Obi-Wan remained outwardly unruffled. _Keep working on the transmitter. I'll distract them. Just try to be quick._ Anakin heard the hiss of a light saber activating and went back to his dismantling.

Obi-Wan dodged neatly around the first blaster bolts and decapitated the lead droid and the two behind him with one swing. _Nice of them to stand all grouped together,_ he thought as he deflected another bolt and snapped the neck of the droid responsible with a twist of the Force. He finished off the small group with two more swipes and retreated to the side of the entrance. _At least I can bottleneck them this way,_ he thought. And from the commotion outside and the blaring alarm, he was going to need the advantage. _How are you doing,_ he asked his partner.

 _About halfway done,_ he answered. _It would be easier to just cut it up._

Obi-Wan blanched. _Then why don't you do that?_

 _You told me not to use my saber!_

Obi-Wan wanted to shake his ex-apprentice, though times like these made him wonder how Anakin ever passed his trials. _We've already been found! Use it!_ And he was relieved to hear the hiss of activation. A moment later, the scents of scorched metal and burnt plastic permeated the room. Then a ruckus sounded outside. More droids were coming. _Are you done?_

 _Yes,_ Anakin answered. _What now?_

Obi-Wan whirled his blade. _Now, we fight our way out._

There was a pause before the other man asked, _can you tell the pilot to lower the rope right over this structure? I have an idea._

So, hoping Anakin wasn't about to pull some crazy stunt, Obi-Wan said into his tiny comm unit, "lower the rope right over the command structure."

"By the entrance?" The answering soldier sounded confused.

Obi-Wan relayed the question to Anakin and he thought, _no, right over the center of the structure._ Again, Obi-Wan relayed the message to the soldier and then there was no more time. The droids were on him.

He leapt over the incoming blaster fire and turned the leap into a front flip. Then, when he came down, he planted each foot on a droid's shoulder, knocking them back and into the force behind them. He back flipped away and landed, light saber still activated. The buzz of a slashing light saber sounded and the smell of burning filled the air. Obi-Wan spared a glance up and there was a huge slashed hole in the structure's ceiling. _So that was Anakin's idea,_ he rejoiced as two coils of rope descended through the gap from the speeder hovering above.

 _Start climbing,_ Anakin yelled in his head. He and Obi-Wan leapt up and away from the incoming droid forces, grabbed a rope each, and started climbing as quickly as possible.

Obi-Wan passed through the slit in the ceiling and suddenly pain raced down his link with Anakin. _Ani! What's wrong?_

 _Blaster shot,_ he answered and the words were laced with pain. _In my leg._

 _Hold on,_ the elder ordered before shouting into his comm unit. "Get us out of here. Now!" _Are you out of the structure,_ he asked Anakin.

 _Yes,_ came the reply and Obi-Wan channeled his relief through the link. The speeder lifted further and Obi-Wan resumed climbing. When he got over the rim of the open seating area, he immediately stumbled to where Anakin's rope was tethered.

"Sire, what are you doing?" One of the troopers asked.

He answered as he grabbed the rope. "Anakin's injured. Help me pull him up." And for once, Obi-Wan was glad of the level of obedience from the clones as they stopped asking questions and hauled on the rope. In just seconds, a black gloved hand grabbed the rim of the speeder and Obi-Wan pulled Anakin over the edge. "Where's the wound?" The young man brushed a hand over his right thigh and Obi-Wan quickly slipped into damage control mode. "Knife," he told one of the soldiers and was handed a small hand weapon. Quickly and carefully, he cut away Anakin's right pant leg to get at the wound. He cursed. It was bad.

The wound was black, flaking away in the center with blood oozing sluggishly from the edges. But worse was the gleam of white showing through the top of the wound where the burnt flesh had been scraped away, presumably by the rope and Anakin tried to climb up. _Any other wounds,_ he asked through the link. No reason to tire Anakin further by making him answer aloud.

 _No,_ the young man replied.

Obi-Wan nodded and asked one of the troopers, "Do we have a med kit?" A white box was thrust into his hands. _Now I wish I had more healer training,_ Obi-Wan muttered to himself as he started to clean the wound.

 _So do I,_ the unexpected reply came. Obi-Wan looked up and saw a pained smile on Anakin's face. It was a reassuring sight.

"How long until we reach camp," he asked the pilot.

The man checked the dashboard in front of him. "About half a standard hour, sir," he answered. Obi-Wan nodded and went back to Anakin's leg wound. With any luck, he could finish the field dressing by the time they landed and get his friend back to the Temple for some better healing. Despite the wound, the mission had been a success.

* * *

Obi-Wan was waiting for him outside the healer's in the Temple when he came out. "Well, what did she say?" he asked.

Anakin shrugged. "I have to wear a leg brace, but I'll be fine. I got a research mission to Kamino."

Obi-Wan's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Why? Is something wrong with the troops?"

The other man shrugged. "I told Master Yoda about our mission and he decided to send me to look at some things." _Of Course,_ he chuckled to himself, _I may have exaggerated a few things, like how bad the wound actually was. But I think he already knew and let me go anyway. You can never tell with Master Yoda._ But he needed to go to Kamino to take a look at their growth system for the clones and an official mission was a good cover. "I have to leave tomorrow." Hopefully, he'd be coming back with a way to save his family.

 **Yes, it's a big of a tangent, but I did set him up for this and despite what's going on with his family. there is still a war to fight. How was my action with the droids? And I would like to thank Authors Black. and Stormqueen873. Reading their stories has very much improved how I write action.**

 **Please review, and thanks to those who already did.**


	4. On Kamino

"Right this way please." Anakin followed the Kaminoan, who led the Jedi to a semicircular room where one wall, the one that curved outwards, was floor to ceiling windows so he could look out over the whole facility laid out before him. The ground floor was crawling with clones, eating, putting on armor, talking, even boarding transports. He looked away from the area buzzing with activity, passed over the classrooms where younger clones studied tactics and looked up towards the circular shelving units for thousands of artificial wombs.

He pointed towards them. "I'd like to take a closer look at those," he said.

As complimentary as ever, the guide bowed. "Right this way," she-Anakin thought it was a she from the lack of a crest of her head-said and walked back into the hallway. They walked through one of the clear walkways crisscrossing in the higher levels of the facility and stopped when they reached a stretch with a better view of the wombs. Anakin turned and thanked his guide. "I can find my way back to my room from here."

She bowed again and began walking along the hallway, but she paused and asked, "What is it that you are here to study about our process or the clones?"

It was tempting to simply tell her to mind her own business, but Anakin thought better of it. "I'm actually here to study the growth chambers." He gestured towards the artificial wombs. "Master Bant, one of our best medics, thinks they could be used to help bolster failing populations. I was sent to study them and see if it would be possible."

Her already enormous eyes widened. "Is that so," she asked. "I could have one sent to your room for you to examine, and any other materials you might find helpful. I can also supply you with information about our in virto fertilization techniques."

 _Score!_ Anakin mentally fist pumped, but outwardly he just nodded. Then the rest of what she'd said caught up to him. "Why would we need that?" he asked, trying not to sound disrespectful. Bantering with Obi-Wan was alright, but this was not a race he wanted to alienate. "I=couldn't we just conceive the fetus naturally and then transfer them to the womb?"

"No, Master Jedi. The shell of the womb, the outside filament, acts as an artificial placenta, which grows as the fetus does. A fetus cannot be attached to a foreign placenta."

 _Okay, there goes that idea,_ Anakin thought as he cringed inwardly. Still, he kept up his calm façade outwardly. "I would appreciate that," he said. The guide continued down the hallway and Anakin continued to examine the units. He looked at a small cluster of developing babies, whose forms were developed but whose skin was still translucent and noticed a small, dark speck under the skin of the babies' heads. "Wait," he said to his retreating guide. "What is that," Anakin asked as he pointed to the small speck.

The guide walked back up to him and too a moment to examine the fetus. "That," she answered, "is the inhibitor chip, or the control chip. We've installed it in every unit."

"What is its purpose," Anakin asked. He didn't like the sound of that.

"It makes the units less aggressive and more obedient than the original host, and also ensures Order 66," she explained.

 _Order 66? The Jedi never heard anything about this,_ Anakin thought. "And what was Order 66?"

"It is a program that, when given a specific command from one person, that order would be carried out without question. It was requested in the original order for the army." The guide looked at him then, slightly confused. "Did the Jedi not request this?"

 _We definitely didn't!_ Anakin screamed inwardly. What on earth was something like that doing in the clones? _I need more information._ "I would like to see the specifics of this program, if you don't mind."

The guide nodded, and again walked away until she was out of hearing range. He turned and studied the floating fetuses, putting the details about the chip's programming out of his head for a while. He was here for Padme and the baby, other things could wait. Unconsciously, a small smile touched his lips and he looked at the infants. Some of them almost looked ready to come out and see the world while others were just starting to develop things like fingers and eyes. He wondered what the child inside Padme looked like right now.

He shook himself and began examining the wombs instead of the fetuses. All clear glass cylinders with a domed top, they each had a fleshy cord going from their dock on the shelf to the child. _Looks like the mechanical version of an umbilical cord,_ he mused inwardly.

That night, in the quarters that Kaminoans had given him, Anakin pulled out the datapad on the Hippocampini race. It was more detailed than the one Obi-Wan had given him that had sparked this whole crazy idea. He tapped one of the electric page markers he'd added before when, in a fit of unrealistic panic, he'd had the insane urge to see what exactly made it possible for the males of the race to carry children. An anatomical drawing of the male popped up. With all the different organs clearly labeled, the Pseudo-womb was easily located.

The image zoomed in on the organ and text boxes sprang up around the picture with various headings at the top. Anakin spotted one labeled "Tissue Structure" and started reading.

 _The brood pouch of the Hippocampini male has two layers, with the outer layer mainly for protection and the inner layer to supply the offspring with needed nutrition. The outer layer is comprised mostly of muscular tissue to provide a strong but flexible haven for the growing young. The inner layer is similar in cellular structure to the placenta in most mammalian species. Both layers of the brood pouch are connected to the rest of the male's body by a dense network of blood vessels and nerves. The blood vessels transport nutrients to the growing young and remove any waste produced by them. The nerves mainly act as sensors to ensure the health and safety of the offspring._

Anakin put the pad on his knees and leaned back against the leg of the bed. What he was thinking about was insane. It was unnatural. _But,_ a very determined voice whispered in his mind, _it could work. And didn't you say you'd do anything to keep Padme and the baby safe?_

"But this is crazy. It won't work," he mumbled. The fact that the voice was entirely right about that last part didn't matter.

The voice wasn't convinced yet, though. _We have the muscle and everything for the outer layer._

"And how do you think my body would respond to having new organs inside of it? I can't just add new organs into my body."

 _None of the tissue would be new. We already have what we need inside. It just needs to be rearranged into a womb._

But Anakin was not going to let a crazy voice at the back of his head talk him into something as insane as building a whole new organ inside himself, and one that was never supposed to be included in his decidedly male physiology to begin with. He put the datapad away, slipped on his sleep clothes, and firmly told his mind to be quiet so he could sleep.

When he woke the next morning, his guide from the day before was waiting in the doorway with a small hand cart behind her. "Good morning, Master Jedi Anakin," she said as she walked into the room, the cart following behind. "I have brought one of our incubation units for your study, as well as schematics and a manual that explains in depth how to use them. I've also included the details on the control chip and the order we programmed into it." She gestured toward a small stack of datapads on the cart. "I hope you will let us know if you need anything else. We are very eager to hear about your findings." Anakin scoffed internally at that. They probably wanted to see if they could make a profit by modifying and selling the units to other species. Then she bowed out of the room leaving the cart behind and he immersed himself in the materials, blocking out all other thoughts.

 **And here we are with our fourth chapter! This is actually one of the longest ones since I had to keep going back and adding in new stuff as the story changed and reformed itself. I hope it didn't end up too choppy. How did I do characterizing the Kaminoans?**

 **Please review!**


	5. That Crazy, Insane Idea

But the idea refused to leave him alone. He'd read through all the materials they'd given him on the artificial uterus, trying to find a way he could still make it work for the baby. But no such luck. _Maybe I could use a surrogate,_ Anakin thought. _A female surrogate,_ he specified when he sensed the borderline insane voice at the back of his head again wanting to promote that insane idea. He'd need to research how someone willing could be found though.

With his new research project firmly pushing the other idea to the side, he thanked and said goodbye to the Kaminoans. Once he launched into light speed, he used the ship's computer to write a report on his research on Kamino. He made it a point to add in the information on the bio-chip. Thankfully, that didn't take too long. After he was finished, he enabled the research capabilities of the computer and started looking into the possibility of a surrogate mother.

Anakin typed "surrogate mother agencies" in to the search engine and pressed enter. A full page of results popped up. _Well, that's encouraging._ He tapped the first link and a Bothan woman's voice started talking. "Hello, and welcome to Mommies . We are a specialty site that serves at-risk races such as…" Anakin tuned her out and looked at the side of the screen where there was a series of labeled tabs. He tapped the one labeled "list of serviced races" and a long, alphabetized list of different races appeared. When he got to the "H" section, he didn't see humans listed. He tried the scientific name and a few other variants, but he couldn't find any, so he tapped the back icon and retyped his search words as "human surrogate mother agencies." Anakin took a bit more care this time as he looked through the results. Several of the links connected to the same web address, a place called "Family Help." And it looked more legitimate, so he tapped one of the links leading there.

There was no narration on this site, and he took that as a good sign. He browsed some of the headings, mumbling their names under his breath. "Find a surrogate near you…having the infertility conversation…blind surrogacy…legal aspects…what you're getting into; a walk through the process, that one looks good." He tapped the heading ad the screen switched to an article with numbered sections. Each section had its own header, so he skipped the ones about infertility. _We've got the opposite problem,_ he thought with a slight wry twist to his mouth. Finally, he started reading under the heading "Blind Surrogacy."

 _There is no such thing as truly blind surrogacy. The couple is still required to meet with the carrier, even if they haven't known her previously. They must meet with her several times before the transplant is made, and frequently afterwards to check on the child's progress and other issues such as possible risk in the pregnancy, legal ramifications, and the cost if the surrogate is being paid for her services, which is the norm._

Anakin stopped reading. Seeing Padme with Obi-Wan and supposedly stopping by to visit a good friend was fine, but if anyone saw them going near an organization for those meetings, the game would be up. She'd lose her place in the Senate and he'd be expelled from the Order. More importantly, they would be separated and he would never get to see his child or Padme again. _Could I go through unofficial channels,_ he wondered for a moment but discarded the idea. He was not about to trust his baby to some black market organization, even if there was probably less paperwork involved, and that still ran the risk of someone seeing them.

Anakin wanted to lash out. There was nothing he could do. He put his head in his hands.

He was out of options.

 _Not quite,_ that mad but persistent voice offered. _There is someone you and Padme trust, who won't give you away and will take good care of the baby. They'll protect it with their life._ The young Jedi took a deep breath and say up straight. One more option was available, and try as he might to deny it, Anakin had exhausted all other options. Which left him with an idea so insane that he was starting to think it would actually work.

He would carry the baby himself.

* * *

When he got back to his apartment at the Temple, Anakin sent his report on the mission to the Council, a short incognito note to Padme that he was back, and got out two datapades. He retrieved the one on the Hippocampini race from his pack and pulled another one left over from his Padawan days off the shelf. The second one was a fully comprehensive text on the female human body, given to him when Obi-Wan had tried to teach him healing. _Too bad I didn't have the talent for it,_ he mused, _or the patience._ Still, the text was handy to have now. He'd need a lot of research if he was going to actually make this mad idea work.

He pulled up the image and details about the brood pouch on the male Hippocampini and read the section again. _Okay, the outer wall would be easy enough, but I have no idea about the inner section._ Plus, they'd told him back on Kamino that he couldn't just give the baby a new one. _Wait,_ he thought. _What if I just took the placenta from Padme? Then I won't need to worry about building one and they'll still have the same placenta._ Now he just needed to know what a human uterus looked like and how it compared to the brood pouch.

Thankfully, the datapad on human female anatomy had a few extra functions, including a search bar. He tapped in "uterus" and tapped enter. A few different sections came up and he scrolled down the list. _Boring, boring,boring…there!_ He paused the downward movement when he saw the heading. "The Human Uterus; What Makes the Cradle of New Life?" Rolling his eyes at the rather pompous title, he tapped the heading and a new page slid into view.

 _Okay,_ he thought with some hope as he read. _The outer layer seems similar enough, and I can form that pretty easily, I guess. The connection between the two layers might be harder. There's so many._ And Anakin knew that, if he was to pull this off, he would have to transfer the baby himself, for the same reason a surrogate wouldn't have worked. He needed to practice.

 _Practicing on myself is probably not a good idea,_ he groaned inwardly, remembering a mission with Obi-Wan during which he'd been injured and tried to heal it without his then master noticing. It had wound up infected and he'd been banned from missions until it healed. No, he needed to practice where there would be someone to help if he messed up and show him the right way to do it. Quickly, he put away the two datapads and walked over to his personal terminal on the desk in his meager bedroom. _Let's see what missions are open._

He clicked onto the mission board for knights and hit the 'training missions' tab. It was something the Council had installed to help knights keep learning since they didn't have a master to teach them anymore. The knight could choose a mission that focused on a skill they wanted to learn or improve and the master or masters also assigned would teach the knight as the mission went on. Anakin had gone on one or two before, picking missions that improved his combat skills, but he looked for a different type of mission now.

 _Okay, hospital, hospital, wait…that one was a field hospital!_ He tapped the mission labeled "Medic needed in field hospital" and read the details. It looked like they needed someone who wanted to learn intense, immediate healing for wounds who was also a good fighter in case the hospital came under fire. It was rather close to several areas of conflict in the war, so that was pretty likely. There were three masters working there, all with very good combat skills and exceptional healing ability. _It wouldn't look strange if I snagged this mission,_ Anakin thought, looking at this course of action from an outside point of view. _I've always studied combat, so Yoda and the rest would probably assume that's what I'm doing._ Besides, he'd just finished a pretty boring mission. It wouldn't surprise anyone that he wanted to run head first into a potentially dangerous situation. He decided to take the mission. Anakin send a request to be assigned to the mission and went to the mess hall to grab some dinner.

 **Alright, here's the next chapter, and we finally get a better idea of what's going to happen. This is actually two separate chapters, but each wasn't long enough on it's own so I had to combine them. What do you think?**

 **And thanks for the reviews! I actually got four for the last chapter, I'm so happy!**


	6. Healing Practice

"Anakin, get over here," Mastr Ecton shouted. Anakin abandoned the basket of dirty sheets he'd been removing from the medical tent and ran over to the short, stocky Jedi master. He'd spent the last three days keeping the tent as clean and orderly as possible while the three masters dealt with an influx of wounded troops, reading healing texts on the side and watching them work when he had a spare moment. Now, the flood had abated and it looked like he was going to get his first hands-on healing lesson.

The soldier Master Ecton was focused on wasn't too badly wounded, with just a rather deep cut on his arm. Anakin had seen healers shove intestines back into a still smoking blaster hole, so this didn't really faze him. "Have you been practicing the meditation techniques I gave you?" the master asked.

"Yes, Master," Anakin replied. The older man nods. "Good. I want you to go into that state and heal his arm, starting with the muscle tissue. I'll stop you if it doesn't work or you're not doing it correctly."

So Anakin closed his eyes and relaxed into the Force. Ecton's sturdy presence was next to him, but Anakin focused on the slightly nervous soldier. As he focused, the mass of the man's presence broke into a thousand tinier sparks of life. Some were bundled tightly together, others, stretched out in long lines around his Force presence. Slowly, with a sort of awe, it dawned on Anakin what he was looking at. Each of the lights was a human cell, a tiny bundle of life energy that contributed to the whole. It was beautiful.

But there was one part of the tapestry of life that wasn't as it should have been, and the Jedi knight focused is attention there. It was the wounded arm, with the cells pulsing around the gash in agitation. _Okay, I have to soothe them first,_ Anakin remembered. Gently, he probed small clusters of tiny life energy, letting them feel his projected calm. With that done, he sought out the tightest, thickest bundles. Master Senshi, another of the three, had given him a crash course yesterday on what different tissue types looked like when you healed through this kind of meditation.

He found the first bundle and saw that its end had been damaged. Soothing it still, he gently nudged it to grow in the direction of the gap. It stretched and connected with the other side of the wound, latching onto another tight bundle of muscle cells. Anakin let the satisfaction of it actually working add to the soothing probes he extended toward the other cells. He looked for the next bright bundle.

Master Ecton watched the wound slowly knit back together as the young knight concentrated. The boy had no bedside manner and lacked patience, but he couldn't deny his ability to concentrate. When the wound was closed all the way, he helped Anakin out of his deep meditative state and sent him to get something to eat. As he left, Master Ecton patted him on the shoulder. The boy had done well.

That night, Anakin decided that he'd learned enough to begin building a home for the baby. Slowly, he closed his eyes and sank into that deep meditative state again. But this time, instead of searching for another organism, he reached inside himself, into his abdomen. He felt the tiny life-flickers in each cell, saw the tiny, bright bundles, and knew what he needed. Gently, he soothed one of the tight bundles of muscle cells and persuaded it to detach from its current place and hover for a moment, barely separated from where its brother cells rested. It did so. _Of course it did, its part of_ me, he thought. He reached for another of the tiny bundles, sent the same suggestion. This one also obeyed. _Now,_ he thought-commanded, _join to the one waiting for you._ The second bright bundle reached for its twin and the two cells rubbed the edges of their outer tips together, catching, and holding.

Then Anakin let his focus drift a bit, so he was seeing the intermingling life energies of different tissues and not individual cells. He spotted the two long strands he needed easily. After all, he was far more used to dealing with severed blood vessels and nerves when he healed wounds. Gently, he reached out to the thicker strand, the blood vessel, and nudged it towards the new formation of two muscle cells. Then he did the same for the even thinner nerve.

With a flash of fear, he retreated from within himself and waited, nervous. If the moved muscle cells didn't link to the two strands and start functioning normally, then that would be it. He'd be back at square one with no way to save Padme or the baby. As much as the idea had freaked him out at first, with every bit of research it had seemed more possible. He'd even looked forward to having his child inside him, as strange as that should make him feel. But he'd never get that chance if this didn't work.

Anakin glanced at a small timepiece on the camp table. Five minutes had passed. If it had worked, the muscle cells he'd moved would still be alive, interacting properly with the blood vessel and nerve he'd placed next to them. If it hadn't, they would be dead. Along with his hopes. With a herculean effort, he let his anxiety drain into the Force and his nerves stilled as Anakin's mind slipped into the healing trance again. He concentrated inward and focused on his abdominal area. Joy and relief radiated out from his Force presence. The cells were still alive.

This _would_ work.

He buckled down and started concentrating within himself again.

* * *

Master Senshi watched with the scanner as the hair line fracture in a clone's knitted back together under Skywalker's influence. The man had been with their field hospital for almost two weeks and his skills had grown exponentially. The bone finished mending and some of the strained ligaments surrounding the break started to heal as well, but the master laid a hand on Anakin's shoulder. Gently, the knight emerged from his trance and looked up at the other man. "Take a break," the master encouraged. "I can finish this, so you go have lunch." Skywalker nodded and walked out the entrance flap, heading for the small mess tent.

That night at dinner, Ecton sat down next to Senshi. "I think we need to ask for a new student," Ecton proposed.

"Senshi looked at his friend. "Another one?"

"No, a new one." Ecton motioned towards Skywalker eating alone at a nearby table. "He's finished learning the basics. All he need now is practice, and he can get that anywhere."

"True enough," Senshi bemoaned, staring down into his cup. "Next time, I'm bringing my own drinking water. This planet's tastes like chalk."

Laughing, Ecton proffered his own glass. "At least this planet has water. But what do you think?"

"Think about what?"

With a sigh, Ecton reminded him. "Skywalker. We were talking about sending him back."

Understanding filled the other master's face! "Oh yes, Skywalker. I agree, it's high time he went back to the Temple. We'll tell him tomorrow." Senshi lifted his cup. A chuckling Ecton did the same and they clanked the cups together, downing their remaining water.

 **And here we are at the next chapter. I'm trying to move this along since I know many of you want to get to the mpreg part already, but I wanted to do a more scientifically believable mpreg, and that means a lot of details. How did my two OCs turn out?**

 **Please Review!**


	7. Facing the Mother Bear

Anakin coaxed one of the last muscle cells to close the gap between its place in his newly formed wall of muscle tissue and the front wall of his abdominal cavity. The other cells close by followed suit and he breathed deeply in relief as he came out of his trance. The young jedi was in his fighter, flying on autopilot back to Corescant and he'd just finished the space for the baby. All his research was done too, though he'd really been uncomfortable learning about C-sections. But everything was ready. Now he just had to convince Padme to go through with this.

Force help him.

* * *

Padme said goodbye to Jar Jar at the door and walked into her small living room. The food at state dinners was usually quite delicious, but something in the meat had made her nauseous. Thankfully, the sensation died away when that course of the meal was replaced with a lighter salad dish. And, even liking Jar Jar as a friend, sitting next to him at dinner had been an experience she did _not_ relish, at least on formal occasions. She took off her coat and a light caught her eye. Her message pad was blinking. With a sigh, she walked over to it and pressed the appropriate button. It was probably just another blanket message for all Senators from the Senate.

"Hi Padme." She perked up immediately. It was her husband! "I just got back from a mission and I need to talk to you. It's about the baby. I'm at my apartment, but comm me if you want to meet somewhere else." A ding signaled the end of the message and Padme rushed for the door, grabbing her coat. In no time at all, she was in an air taxi headed for the Temple.

Back in his own rooms within the Temple, the young Skywalker paced the floor of his living room. Padme would be here any minute with the baby, and he still hadn't thought of a way to convince her. He'd finished his…well he didn't know what to call it exactly, but the cells inside him were in place and everything was functioning. Making the transfer wouldn't be that hard. He just-

The doors opened with a metallic slide and Padme stepped into the room, mercifully unescorted. He pulled her into a hug even before the doors closed again and sighed as she gripped him back. But then she pulled away and looked up into his face, her brow furrowed slightly. "What's wrong? You're so tense."

Unclenching his arms, Anakin took a deep breath. "Maybe we should sit down." Her frown deepened as they walked over to the low couch and sat down. Anakin turned so that he faced her and took one of her hands. "I found a way to save the baby and you."

Her grip on his hand tightened and she asked, "What is it?"

"Well," he said, his voice low, "since the vision showed me that it wouldn't be safe for you, I started looking for other ways. We can't use a surrogate, because we have to keep it a secret." She nodded. "Artificial wombs don't work unless you use them from the start. Besides, they're used to being inside you. So keeping the baby inside a human is the best thing for them."

"But you said we can't use a surrogate, and we can't move them from inside me in the first place, it's not medically possible," she protested, trying to pull away. She did not like where this was going.

But Anakin didn't let go of her hand. "In humans, it's not, but other races do it naturally, like the Hippocampini race. When they have children, the female conceives them," he paused, "and then passes it to the male when it's ready." He looked up at her, his face pleading.

Stunned, she jerked her hand away and almost leapt off the couch, nearly glaring at him. "You can't do that! It would never work!"

"And why not," he replied also getting to his feet.

"Humans don't work that way," she chided. How could he even think to risk the baby like that? They didn't even know if his vision would really come true, and he wanted to risk their child's life on some crazy idea he'd gotten from a fish species?

"I can use the Force. I've already practiced healing quickly under stress. I can make it work!"

That halted her for a moment. Practiced? "What did you use to practice," she asked quietly. How much had he thought this through?

He gestured for her to sit again but she did not. Slowly, he told her about his time learning and studying in the field hospital. "I healed every soldier they let me work on, and by the time I was finished there, I could heal a broken bone in a minute. Padme," he beseeched, coming closer and putting his hands on her shoulders, "this will work."

She looked up at him, still not convinced. "Broken bones aren't children, Ani. Women have all sorts of things men don't to make children possible."

But his grip stayed firm, reassuring. He said, "I researched that too. A lot of the hormones the baby needs come from the placenta, and I can transfer that too. I've already built everything else I'll need inside me." He reached for one of her hands and pressed it to his abdomen. "They'll be safe with me, right here."

Padme mulled it all over in her head. He'd obviously thought of all the medical angles, but… "What about you?"

"What do you mean," he asked.

"What about when you start to show? How would you keep it a secret? And you'd need help Anakin, especially toward the end," she protested. It was one thing for her to be pregnant, but Anakin… what would happen if he got caught?

But the imagined danger seemed to have no effect on her husband. "Jedi go on Sabbatical all the time. They go for months and don't see anyone else. In fact, I think the council expects me to go on one sooner or later."

"But what about when the baby's ready to come out? You'd need medical help for that! What if something went wrong?"

"You'll be there to help," he answered. "It won't be a normal birth, so we can schedule it for a time when you're there to help and I can heal everything afterwards. And there won't be complications, because I'd sense them through the Force. I learned how." She opened her mouth again but he pressed on. "If I do feel something wrong, I can fix it from the inside. I've learned everything I'll need to protect the baby." He made it sound possible, she had to admit. The child would be safe and Ani would be with it to protect it. "Padme, please," the man asked, still holding her hand. "I just want to save our family." He withdrew his hand. "I'm getting another mission in two weeks. We need to transfer the baby from you to me before I leave, so you have about a week to decide."

 **Things are really starting to move now! Also, I've gotten some questions about my summary, because only Luke's in it. This is because of a plot development I wrote later on. Leia will still be there, there will still be twins in this story. Anakin just doesn't take both of them to the temple. Thanks for all your encouragement and questions, they really make my day!**

 **Please review!**


	8. Could She?

Padme left Ani's quarters, her mind still indignant. How could he ask that of her? _He's trying to help,_ a calmer part of her mind reminded. _You saw the effect those visions had on him. And after what happened to his mother, he's right to be worried!_

"That doesn't give him the right to ask me this!" she mumbled angrily. "There's no guarantee this would even work! So many things could go wrong."

 _Things will go wrong if we don't do this,_ her thoughts insisted. She pushed them away. Pausing a moment to catch her breath after her angry run from the apartment section of the temple, she noticed splashing. She'd wandered into the Room of a Thousand Fountains by mistake. Gently splashes from the fountains stilled her soul and the scents and sights of the beautiful indoor gardens cooled her indignant anger. There was a giggle to her right and Padme looked. A small group of initiates, probably about five or six years old, played by one of the gardens, dipping their hands and feet into a nearby fountain. One of them, a girl, walked over to the adult watching them. She grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her over to one of the flowerbeds, gesturing wildly. Smiling, the woman bent down to see whatever the girl had wanted to show her and smiled at the child.

Padme's hands drifted to her still flat middle as she watched the scene. Would that be her in a few years, laughing with her daughter or son? _Not if we don't do something,_ that voice from before persisted. How could she risk such a future on such an unnatural idea? _If you don't, you and the baby will both die. And what will happen to Anakin when that happens?_ The thought stopped her cold. When he'd gone through the same thing with his mother, Anakin had lashed out in anger. Padme might not be a jedi, but she'd been around them long enough to know that wasn't a good thing. Worse, he'd never been the same afterwards.

What would happen to him if she died too, along with the baby? Would he go even further into the dark? _And it will be worse,_ that other voice prodded; _because he had a way to save both of you and you didn't let him even try._ She sat down on a bench and buried her face in her hands. Ani would never forgive himself.

"Are you okay, lady," a quiet voice asked and Padme looked up. One of the children had walked over to her and sat down next to her on the bench. It was a little girl, with black hair and big brown eyes that seemed to peel away all the senator's carefully layered facades. She put her small hands in her lap and looked up at Padme. "Sometimes when I'm not okay, I tell my friends and they help me feel better."

Well, what could it hurt? "I have a friend who has a…" Padme stumbled for a suitable substitute, "puppy." The little girl's eyes lit up for a moment at the mention of such a cuddly creature. "She's taking care of the puppy with a friend, but if she keeps the puppy, she'll have to go away with it and her friend will be sad." The girl's face fell in sympathy and Padme almost pulled her in for a hug. She blamed it on the hormones. "But, if she lets the friend take care of it for a while, she won't have to leave, but the puppy might."

"Only might?" the little girl asked, her eyes big with curiosity. Padme nodded. "Then she should let the friend take care of it. Then they can all be happy together."

Then Padme really did hug the little girl. "Thank you. I think I know what to tell my friend now." And she did, she realized as the girl skipped back to her friends. _It may be only a chance, but it's the only chance we have,_ she thought as she got up from the bench and walked out to the main entrance of the Temple where she could get another taxi. _But there's no way I'm doing this without some proper medical equipment._

* * *

Yoda put down the report young Skywalker had submitted about his stay on Kamino. The majority of it showed satisfactory performance with the creation and training of the clones, but it was the last three or four sections that made him worry. The chip seemed to be rigged in such a way that, if a specific code was given, control over all the clones would switch from the Jedi Order to some unknown entity. _If find the person who placed the order we could, neutralize this threat, we also could._ He decided to pay Kamino a visit, or perhaps send one of the other masters. But he could do some digging right there in the Temple. He started towards the Archives.

As soon as he entered the Jedi equivalent of a library, one of the knights who looked after the vast collection ran forward. "Good morning, Master Yoda. How can I help?"

Yoda smiled at the tiny Ewok, one of the few they had in the Order. "Need financial records, I do."

The furry knight practically ran over to one of the shelves of datapads, saying, "All financial records are here." He pointed to the shelving unit that towered above him. "Were you looking for anything in particular?"

The Grand Master nodded. "The record of Master Sifo-Dyas, I wish to examine." Nodding, the furry Jedi rose into the air in an impressive display of telekinesis and examined the contents of the shelf. Finally, he pulled one of the datapads out and floated back down to Master Yoda. He handed the pad to the Jedi and bowed deeply. "Thank you, young one," Yoda added as he smiled at the diminutive librarian. "May the Force be with you." And with that, he left the archives and turned back towards his chambers.

 **It took a long time to talk Anakin around to the idea, so I needed something like that for Padme. Originally it was going to be Yoda who did the talking, but he was already busy and I thought a kid made a nice touch. And yes, the end is Yoda getting on Palpatine's trail. This was is going to end a lot differently than the original, and I'm trying to keep that subplot in this story without being too pushy or disjointed.**

 **Please review!**


	9. Transferrence

"Are you ready?" Anakin asked from the hallway outside the apartment's main bedroom.

"Yes," Padme called, and she opened the door. She'd put on a loose top that ended just under her bust and the equally loose shorts that hugged the tops of her thighs to leave her stomach area entirely uncovered. Her hair was pulled into a loose braid at the back of her neck to keep it out of the way in a comfortable manner. Anakin was dressed the same way, though his braid was much shorter.

They were making the transfer tonight.

Slightly trembling, Padme walked over to the kitchen where they'd tried to replicate a hospital set-up. The table was covered in clear plastic wrap to keep things sterile and make cleaning up easier once they were finished and able to move again. She really hoped they'd be able to get up and clean up easily, without a huge mess. If there was too big of a mess, it probably meant she, Anakin, or the baby had bled to death, or worse, all three of them. A shudder wracked her at the thought.

Anakin must have felt it, because he squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," he murmured hi her ear. "We're all going to be okay." And he kissed her gently, pressing a hand to her stomach. "Now, are you ready?" _No,_ she wanted to say, but just nodded instead. She laid down on the table with her legs hanging off the edge. Ani's hands hovered over her middle. "Alright, I'm just going to see there the baby is." He looked at her for permission and she nodded. His eyes closed as his fingers touched her bare skin. When they opened again, a bright, delighted smile broke across his face. "Padme, there's two of them!"

"What?" she exclaimed from the table. "We're having twins?!"

"Yes," he said, grinning. Then he snatched his hand back and started to pace, smile gone. "We have to stop. I didn't know there were two. What if there's not enough space inside me? What if I'm not fast enough? I need to practice more. I need to make more space. Wait, will this even work with two babies? What if-"

"Anakin!" Padme shouted. He stopped pacing and looked back at her. _He's just as scared as I am,_ she realized. Well it was her turn to be strong. "It will be fine." Still, the fear didn't fade. "Women carry twins the same way they would one baby. You'll have enough space."

"But-"

"No Anakin." She got off the table and walked over to him. "You leave on a mission soon. By the time you get back, they'll be too big." With a firm grip, she held his hand and pulled him back towards the kitchen. "You can do this."

The fear still lingered in his eyes, but he nodded. Ignoring her own nerves, Padme got back onto the table and smiled at him. He smiled back, even though his hands shook when he placed them on her stomach again. Anakin reached out with his senses and found the two tiny bursts of life energy. They were curled up around each other on Padme's left side, right next to the wall of her womb. Slowly, he pulled away from the Force and came back to himself. "They're right where they need to be," he said, and Padme noticed how more of the nervousness had quieted.

"See? It'll be fine," she encouraged. "We should get started."

Anakin picked up the IV and carefully inserted the needle into the crook of her elbow. Frankly, he didn't want to know how Padme had gotten that, or the clear pouch of painkiller he attached to the clear tube. Nonetheless, he was happy she had. At least he would be the only one in any pain. "Are you sure you don't want some?" she asked, gesturing with her free hand at the clear pouch of painkiller.

He answered her as he dipped the necessary tools in a sterilizing solution. "I have to be aware for this to work, Padme. We've already talked about this." Once he finished the sterilization, he wiped his side with a washcloth dampened with rubbing alcohol. Then he grabbed a pen and drew a tall, slim oval on his exposed side. He handed Padme one of the scalpels and a wad of clean cotton. "Ready?"

"Yes," she answered, very thankful that her voice didn't come out as a squeak. As she sat up, he moved to her right so she had easy access to where he'd drawn on his skin. Steadying her hands, Padme put the tip of the blade at the top of the oval and applied pressure.

Anakin hissed at the pain when the point punctured his side and Padme halted. "Keep going," he told her through clenched teeth.

"But-"

"Keep going," he insisted, and his tone allowed for no argument. "I'm fine."

He clearly wasn't, but she did as he asked and finished the cut. Quickly, Padme pressed the cotton to the incision, which bled sluggishly. She watched Anakin's pinched face ease and he delved into the Force, checking inside himself to make sure everything there was ready. The pained expression returned when he surfaced and she asked, "Is everything alright?" To her great relief he nodded and she laid down, keeping pressure on the cotton.

Carefully, Anakin circled around her to her left side and grabbed the second scalpel. "Are you ready?" She nodded, and felt the slight pressure as the slim blade sliced into her side. The instant the cut was finished, she removed the padding from Anakin's side and he lay down next to her, matching up the two incisions perfectly.

Then he closed his eyes and plunged into the Force.

Pain siphoned off into the Force as Anakin entered that state where each cell filled with its own life energy. Easily, he found the two bright bundles of life. He briefly checked to make sure they were still fine, and moved on to the bigger masses of the two placentas. With speed and the ease of much practice, he detached the myriad of blood vessels and nerves running from the side of Padme's womb to the first placenta. Once he was finished, he grabbed the whole thing and, still concentrating hard, brought it through the narrow slit in Padme's side, then the one in his side. The second the last cell passed through, he said, "Now." Padme shoved another wad of cotton bandaging between the two slits. She waited for Anakin to tell her to move again, that the first baby was fine and he was ready for the second one.

It seemed only seconds to her before Anakin repeated the command and she moved the cotton, pressing their sides together again. This time, she thought she felt a slight tugging sensation as Anakin moved the second child. When he shouted "done," she slapped an adhesive bandage on her side and grabbed a curved needle and some thread.

The Jedi felt the needle as it sew up the gap, but he didn't let it distract him. He grabbed another of the severed blood vessels from the placenta and grafted if onto one of his. The nerves were harder but thankfully fewer. He finished attaching the last major nerve bundle and took a moment to check on his children. Both still had strong heartbeats, with no signs of distress. Relief flooded his senses and he went back to weaving in the blood vessels and other connective tissues.

Padme finished suturing his side wound closed and peeled the bandage off her side. She dipped the needle in the sterilizing solution, grabbed a clean spool of thread, and started to sew her own side shut.

When she was about halfway finished, a hand gently took the needle from her. She looked up from her task and was that Anakin had come out of his Force link. "How are they," she asked.

"Fine," he answered, smiling. Then he kissed her. In the days following, both she and Anakin pleaded illness to avoid their responsibilities. Anakin took the time to heal, and Padme's body went through what it saw as a miscarriage.

But they had done it.

 **Yes, it's a day early! Next week's chapter will still be on Wednesday, but tomorrow I won't have time, so I decided to post today. A lot of medical research went into this chapter, and this was the best I could do. It's not like I could look up transferring fetuses, so I had to look at organ donors. Let me tell you, there are some things in that research I wish I hadn't seen. But it was worth it! What did you guys think?**

 **Review!**


	10. Investigations

He woke, stretched out on the narrow sleep couch, and barely avoided hitting his head on the overhead shelving. Sometimes, he wished he wasn't quite so tall. Quickly, he glanced over at Obi-Wan. The Council almost always paired him with his older Master, whenever he needed a partner for a mission. He knew they did this with almost all knights, but it still rankled him. Luckily, Obi-Wan was still asleep. Anakin untangled himself from the sheets and walked over to the 'fresher' unit, slipping inside and sliding the doors closed behind him.

Quickly, he disrobed, undid his belt, and turned so he could see his body's profile in the mirror attached to one wall of the small, white room. He sighed at his still-flat stomach. It was all well and fine to know the two were in there, but he wanted to see them! Wanted to feel them, touch them, know with more than just his head that they were there, inside him.

There was a thump from the other side of the door. Obi-Wan was awake. Anakin called a good morning to his old master and cleaned himself up for the day, refastening his belt and heading back out. He plastered his customary surly scowl on his face as he passed the older Jedi. Time for breakfast.

It was the day after Anakin had left his supposed 'sick leave' for the transfer. The minute he'd said he could take missions again, he was assigned this one with Obi-Wan as a partner. Thankfully it was an undercover investigation and not a battleground. They'd left only a few hours after he'd gotten the message, so both Jedi had gotten to the ship very late in the evening and boarded. For once, they had a ship with an actual crew and more space than a single fighter's cockpit to use. Using the small one-man ships jedi favored would suggest that they'd need to leave at a moment's notice, an impression the two jedi did _not_ want to give the Senator they were to investigate. Which was how the two ended up in a ship with an actual galley for meals, where they headed for breakfast.

In the galley, Obi-Wan grabbed a mug of thankfully hot tea and headed to where Anakin was eating his own breakfast. He stopped a few feet from the table and stared. _If Anakin's hitting another growth spurt, he'll be taller than Mace soon._ For what other reason could there be for the younger man's voracious appetite? Barely three inches were between Anakin's face and his plate as he shoveled the rather flavorless breakfast into his mouth. Two plates, scraped clean, rested at his elbow, along with three empty glasses.

The elder Jedi sat down across from him and sipped at his tea, waiting for the other to straighten up from his hunched position over his plate. Then, with his head still lowered, Anakin asked, "Are we sparring today, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan's thoughts halted as he paused. "Yes," he answered. "Why do you ask?"

Anakin shrugged. "No reason." _To get your mind off my appetite,_ he said inwardly. He'd have to be more careful, if he didn't want his old master finding out his secret. Thank the Force for his extra study in shielding his mind. He put down his fork and sat back in his chair. "I don't understand why the Council sent both of us," he commented. "It's only a diplomatic mission, not a battle."

"You know why, Anakin," the older Jedi explained, huffing a bit in irritation. This wasn't the first time the Knight had asked. "Senator Icrim is suspected of lending financial aid to the Seperatists. I am to placate the Senator and discuss plans for his upcoming proposal and you are to investigate the claims."

Anakin rolled his eyes as he swallowed. "Both things I could have done on my own. I didn't need a partner." He started eating again. _And,_ he thought, somewhat sullenly, _I'd be able to check if I was showing more often, if I didn't have to dance around you. It should be really soon, since it's twins._ They finished the meal in silence and headed for the more open maintenance bay of the ship to spar.

* * *

Yoda scanned through the financial records again. Jedi never had much in the way of money, and Master Sipho-Dias had apparently agreed with that thought. Most of his transactions were small things, like a new tunic from a bargain store or a gift for an apprentice. But Kaminoans wouldn't have started building such a clone army without some sort of payment in advance. Yoda had looked for such a payment and found nothing. _Perhaps, from a different source, he drew the funds. Look at his travel records, I should._ He put aside the datapad in case he needed to peruse the record again later and headed back to the library again. This was looking more disturbing with every puzzle piece added.

* * *

Senator Icrim met them at the hangar with a few aides and several more guards. "Welcome, great jedi," the man said as the two robed men descended the ship's ramp. "It is an honor to have the two of you here." He bowed low and the jedi returned the gesture. Anakin relaxed fractionally. The man seemed nice enough, or at least polite. Then he stepped forward and gripped Obi-Wan at the elbow. "Come, we must begin discussion at once."

Obi-Wan shrugged the man's inappropriately casual hand off. "Of course, Senator, but perhaps we could drop off our luggage first?"

The man's head bobbed in a nod. "Of course. Colin!" Icrim bellowed the name and one of the aides came closer.

"Yes, sir?" he hesitantly asked.

"Take their luggage to the guest room and show that one where it is." He made a dismissive gesture towards Anakin. The younger man's anger mounted. Who did this senator think he was, treating a knight like this?

A hand brushed his arm and he looked over at Obi-Wan. "Go with the aide," he said, urging Anakin over to the nervous young man. His tone clearly told the knight to let the oversight pass. So Anakin released his anger into the Force and nodded. Quickly, he grabbed his small bag as the aide grabbed Obi-Wan's and they both headed into the rather extravagant mansion.

The entryway alone made Ani's skin crawl. The sweeping double stairway had painted gold railings and the floor was cold stone, though smoother than he'd thought. Suddenly he wanted to be back in the simpler, homier rooms of the Temple or even back in a troop tent. This made him feel like an unworthy intruder. The hallway they entered next wasn't much better. With more of that same stone for the floor and rather cold walls decorated with columns every few feet, their steps echoed down the corridor. He sincerely hoped the floor in their guest rooms wasn't stone too.

As they walked further, windows started lining one wall and the stone floor gave way to thick carpet. He breathed a bit easier after that. They'd only walked for about a minute when the aide turned and opened one of the doors in the opposite wall from the windows. "Here you are, sir," the man added and bowed slightly as Anakin walked past him and into the room. The same carpet from the hallway blanketed the floor, a relief to be sure, and there were also two large beds and a comfortable-looking couch. A large bay window on the other side of the room filled it with a natural light. _It's a good thing it's not as fancy as that entryway,_ Anakin thought. _I wouldn't have been able to sleep._ Then the aide spoke up from where he stood next to one of the beds. "A fresher unit is through that door." He pointed to a small door off to the side. "Will that be all?" He looked as if he sincerely hoped it was.

But Anakin, to the dismay of his guide, had a few questions. "Where are meals served, and is there somewhere for us to train?"

"Dinner will be brought to you tonight, and a servant will escort you to breakfast tomorrow. After the meal, you may request a tour, which includes our gym and workout facilities." Then before Anakin could ask any more questions, the aide practically scrambled for the hallway. _Well he certainly wasn't friendly,_ the jedi mused. _I wonder why._ It could just he the aide, but somehow he doubted that. _I guess I could meditate on it, after I unpack._


	11. Playing a Part

When the aide led him to breakfast the next morning, he was relieved to see a smaller, more modest dining area than he'd expected. Small circular tables littered the rom and Obi-Wan waved to him from one. Anakin nodded and made a beeline for the long table against one wall laden with food. Once he'd piled high a plate of sausages, fruit, and a waffle or two, he joined the other Jedi. As he started on one of the waffles, Obi-Wan said, "You'll need to get a tour of the place soon to maintain your cover. Security always needs to know a building's layout and any security measures already in place."

Anakin brushed aside the comment. "I know, I already asked one of the servants to give me one. And," he added when Obi-Wan opened his mouth to continue, "I'm going to ask to talk to the head of security." He took a bite of his fruit and watched Obi-Wan sit back with a sigh that didn't quite hide the pride in his expression.

"Just checking," Obi-Wan chuckled. "After all, we wouldn't want a repeat of that time with the waitress in Susanna."

As he'd hoped, red crept up Anakin's neck. "My cover was as your assistant, not a security officer like now. And that waitress was out of line."

"She bumped you."

"So she could slip her address into my pocket! And she wouldn't stop staring at me! It was creepy." He shoved another piece of fruit into his mouth with a scowl and Obi-Wan by contrast sipped at his hot tea with a smile tugging at his lips.

He could see how much Anakin wanted to drop the subject, but he couldn't help himself. "And that creepiness is a perfect justification to throw up a barrier between her and our table, blowing our cover in the process."

Scowl deepening, Ani muttered, "it's not like you ever had those problems. No one ever look at you like that."

Thankfully, the knight was saved from retaliation by one of the doors leading into the room. It opened and one of the aides from yesterday stepped in. "I've been instructed to bring you to the council room, Master Kenobi," he said, bowing in the man's direction. Then he glanced at Anakin. "Someone will come to give you a tour later." Then he left the room with Obi-Wan following.

About five minutes later, when Anakin had almost finished his breakfast, another servant stepped into the room. He was much older than any of the others the knight had met, with mostly grey hair and a lined face. "Master Skywalker, I understand you would enjoy a tour?" he asked with a slight bow of his head. Mouth still full, the knight just nodded and hurried to finish. Once he'd put his dirty dishes with the rest, he followed the old servant out.

 _Senator Icrim really likes to show off,_ Anakin thought halfway through the tour. Everything he'd seen so far seemed design to display wealth and make him feel like a desert mouse from Tatooine. Marble, the stone he'd noticed yesterday and asked his guide about, found its way into every room somehow. At least the places he'd probably use the most often, like their guest rooms and the hallway outside them, didn't have floors made of the stuff. Thomas, his guide, interrupted his musings. "And this is the gym and general workout area," he announced as he opened a rather large door. Anakin stuck his head into the room and for once was glad Icrim liked to show off. The gym was huge, with a polished wood floor and stacks of the best exercise equipment off to the side. Several doors led off the main area and Anakin made a note to check them out later. "Shall we continue, sir," Thomas asked. When the knight looked back at him, the impatience was clear on his face. So Anakin nodded and they continued.

About an hour later, the two men wound up back in the entryway. By that time, Anakin sported a heavy scowl and was thoroughly tired of marble. But instead of waxing eloquent about the chandelier or railings as he had in many other rooms, Thomas quickly walked over to one of the walls supporting one side of the elaborate staircase. "This is our security room. Please wait here for our head of security," he said as he seemingly conjured a door from the wall and ushered Anakin through. "You may roam the house after your meeting or ask a servant for a tour of the grounds. Good day." Then he shut the door and left Anakin in probably one of the only comfortable rooms in the whole building. Technology hummed around him. Holoscreens flickered on the walls and the room, devoid of marble, buzzed with activity as several security agents checked various screens and shouted at each other. For a while, Anakin just leaned against the door frame and relaxed into the familiar environment. How many times had he stood in places like this during the last few years, planning troop movements, gathering intelligence, checking for enemy weaknesses? Finally, an older woman finished instructing someone at one of the screens and walked over to him. She offered her hand and said, "I'm Tarina Emach, head of security." He took her hand and shook it. "I understand you were sent to inspect our security measures. What would you like to know?"

Hmm, this woman was smart. He'd have to put some effort into maintaining his cover. "What can you tell me about the security camera system?" He hoped that wasn't a stupid question.

Apparently, it wasn't, because she nodded and gestured to the screens. "We have hundreds of cameras in the mansion and on the surrounding grounds, so we can't watch all of them at once. That's why each camera is equipped with a range of sensors, including motion detectors and chemical disturbance detectors." She pointed to one of the larger screens, which showed an elaborately decorated room occupied by the senator, Obi-Wan, and several servants off to the side. "When the sensors attached to the cameras are tripped, the image is projected on one of our screens."

 _Quite an impressive system,_ Anakin thought. Still, there was one huge, glaring issue. "What about privacy?"

Apparently, she'd been expecting the question. "Certain rooms such as bathrooms, closets, and select bedrooms are equipped with face recognition software and other types of identifying sensors. Individuals invited or employed here are scanned upon their arrival. When they enter any of the private rooms, as we refer to them, the cameras confirm their identity and then shut off. The other sensors trigger a reactivation of the cameras if they detect anything."

 _Okay, a bit more than impressive._ Why didn't the Senate Building have one of these systems? The jedi didn't need it, but the politicians could definitely use the extra protection. _Probably a matter of price,_ he mused. An individual might think this security system was worth the price tag, but such an expense on the government's budget probably wouldn't go over very well. _Ugh, I'm spending too much time with Padme,_ he moaned internally. _I'm starting to see politics everywhere._ "May I see some of the camera network?" he asked.

Emach nodded crisply. "Yes, after lunch."

 **Here's another chapter for you all! Next week's may be a little late, as my fiance is coming back after a six month deployment and only gets a week to spend with me before they ship him off again. I won't see him again until the wedding! Also, I stole some of the camera stuff from a movie called "Catch That Kid". But I thought it was cool and so replicated it here. The privacy rooms were my idea, though. What did you guys think?**

 **Please review!**


	12. Oh Happy Day

When Anakin woke up the next morning, Obi-Wan was already getting dressed. "Good morning," he said cheerfully. "I have a meeting with Senator Ikrim after breakfast," the older Jedi informed his friend as he pulled on his boots. "What will you do?"

Anakin mulled the question over for a moment and answered, "I'll take a look at his financial records, see if I can find anything. Will you be free for a spar later, Master?"

Warm humor flooded Obi-Wan's Force Presence as he shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Anakin. The meeting's likely to take all morning. Feel free to get in some practice, though." He smiled and added, "And you don't have to call me master anymore, Ani."

The young men finished getting ready for the day, ate breakfast together in a small dining area close to their rooms that one of the servants showed them, and then parted ways. Obi-Wan went to meet the senator in one of the more opulent state rooms while Anakin headed for the gym, when he felt someone behind him.

He sighed. Anakin was pretty sure Emach had someone tailing him. Okay, maybe he shouldn't have asked so many questions about the so-called "private" rooms, but he needed to know. A secret this big was kind of hard to keep with cameras watching his every move! And now on top of that, one of the servants wouldn't leave him alone. At least the girl had no idea how to hide from a Force adept. She stuck to the hallways mostly, trusting the cameras in the rooms and keeping an eye on him from a distance. Bad idea, but he used it to his advantage, never staying in a single room long enough to make her suspicious and catching her in the act when she decided to check on him.

Today was no different, he noted, as he nonchalantly opened the door to the gym and felt her take up a watching position in a nearby doorway behind a column. He wouldn't have to put up with it much longer anyways. The evidence he and Obi-Wan needed was close, he could feel it. The Jedi started with stretches to limber up his muscles and then started on his various katas.

Block, block, strike, kick, and block again. After a few repetitions, he grabbed a pole from a pile of gym equipment off to one side and started another kata, this one for saber work. Overhead strike, downward block, side swing, hilt strike. The memorized, repetitive motion soothes his mind as his muscles flexed and tensed with the motions. Katas may be a pain to learn at the beginning, but now they were one of his favorite things about life as a Jedi. He switched to a gymnastics kata.

He brought his knees up to his chest to launch himself into a flip to start the sequence. Then he stopped.

Something felt different.

Casting a quick glance around the practice room to make sure no one else was there, Anakin straightened and ran a hand over his midsection. A smile broke out on his face and he laughed inwardly in delight at his hand caressed the almost undiscernible swell in his abdomen. There they were.

* * *

Obi-Wan was unsettled. Anakin hadn't scowled once since they'd met up after lunch and it was unnerving to the older jedi. He hadn't been surly with any of the staff, he'd had a rare show of sportsmanship when he'd won in their saber spar, helping Obi-Wan up from where he'd fallen, and his Force presence was, well, happy. If it hadn't been for the fact that he knew Anakin's Force Presence so intimately, he would have thought it was an imposter. But since the Force presence was Anakin's, he was left with an ex-padawan who seemingly was in a good mood. Very unsettling. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. "What is it," he asked, annoyance edging his words. He had to leave for another long meeting with the senator, and he wasn't going to have this eating at the back of his brain while they talked.

Anakin looked at his friend, that aggravatingly confusing smile _still_ on his face. "What do you mean?"

"You've been smiling all day. You don't usually do that, and the lack of annoyance, aggression, or anger in your Force presence is disturbing. What happened?"

Inside his tightly shielded mind, Anakin massively flinched. Had he really been grinning like an idiot all day? He let loose a scowl now with a disgruntled, "So I can't just be happy?"

Obi-Wan sighed. "Anakin, the last time you smiled that much, Mace had gotten caught in the lift you programed to play the Corascant planetary anthem whenever someone rode it." Anakin grinned at the memory. "What did you do?" The knight wracked his brain for a good lie, but Obi-Wan took his hesitance as a refusal to answer and just sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped. I'll find out soon enough when we get kicked off the planet because of one of your pranks."

Anakin's scowl returned for real. "That time on Yavin 4 was not my fault."

"You put itching powder in the shoes of the Ceremonial Head of Protocol!"

"I was fourteen!"

"And should have known better." Obi-Wan ducked his old padawan's embarrassed swipe at his head and chuckled. It seemed all his irritation was for nothing, even if the pranking consequences would come back to bit soon enough. Smiling slyly, he watched Anakin storm off, usual scowl firmly in place.

That night, after Obi-Wan had excused himself from the discussions with the senator over a dinner far to lavish for a jedi's simple tastes, he met up with Anakin back at their rooms. "Did you find anything," he asked his younger friend.

"I looked through his financial records like I said I would, and I think I found something." Ani turned on the datapad he'd hidden under his outer tunic and brought up the page he wanted. "Remember that mission we were sent on a few months ago to Rexus Prime?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "We destroyed a whole fleet of Seperatist ships. They were refueling and we caught them off guard."

"Well," Ani continued, moving to sit next to the older man so they could both see the datapad's screen. "He's been sending a lot of credits to that area, for refueling specifically. The date the amounts stops correlates directly with our raid on the area, possibly because once we found it, they stopped going there. He also doesn't have enough ships going through there to justify the credit amounts, I checked."

"You hacked into the man's travel records?!"

He almost rolled his eyes. "Yes. And what I found definitely confirms what we thought, or at least enough of it that he can be brought in for questioning."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Then we should leave tonight, before he can stop us or cover his tracks more thoroughly. Pack, I'll go wake the crew." Within three hours, they were both writing their reports for the Council on their ship as it shot through hyperspace back to Corescant.

 **I'm back! Miss me? After a great week of planning and having fun with my fiance, it's hard to get back into the swing of things, but it was worth it to get to spend time with him. Anyway, here's another chapter! I wrote this one in bits and pieces, but the first part I put on paper was Ani's moment in the gym. I debated a lot about how I would manage that, and eventually chose this way. Did you guys like it? Please Review!**


	13. Healer's War

When Anakin got called in for a Council meeting, he had to forcefully staunch the fear that welled up within him. Had Obi-Wan told them something? Did they know? He clamped down firmly on that fear. If his old master suspected something, the last thing he would do was go behind Anakin's back. His master always confronted things head on, in life at least. Battles were another thing altogether. Still, Yoda or Mace might have sensed something through the Force, even if Obi-Wan hadn't. He paced nervously in front of the entrance to the Council chambers, waiting to be called in.

"Anakin Skywalker, you may enter," Mace's voice said over the room's comm system and the doors slid open. With emotions firmly under control and tucked behind his shields, he walked into the circle of Jedi masters.

He turned to Yoda and bowed his head. "You wished to see me, Master Yoda?"

The wrinkled green head nodded. "Yes. Noticed, I have, that you have learned healing. Why?" Yoda paused for a moment and Anakin's mind went into overdrive. What could he say? Then Yoda continued and the knight relaxed when he realized the question had been rhetorical. "Thinking of taking an apprentice, are you?"

Anakin grabbed the ready-made answer. "Yes, Master Yoda." Then an idea popped into his head and he charged forward before he could overthink it. "I thought about asking to teach a saber class for a few weeks to get to know some of the initiates. I'm good enough with the saber to teach."

But Yoda was shaking his head even before Anakin had finished. "Too long from battle you have been. Need your skills, many battlegrounds do."

"Even so," Mace interjected, "the idea is a sound one. Perhaps when the war is no longer so dire, we can return to this discussion. However, this is not the only topic we wish to ask you about." Again the young knight consciously kept his stance relaxed. Any tensing could make them suspicious and he didn't need them ferreting out why he suddenly seemed so nervous. "Masters Ecton and Senshi reported that your healing skills are highly effective, and we have few battle medics. Would you be open to such a posting, Skywalker?"

He thought it over for a minute. "What exactly would I be doing," Anakin asked.

"You would be stationed with the second line of troops, helping those who were wounded in the initial attack while also protecting them. Almost all the jedi knights who have healing experience have been given this duty," Mace explained.

 _So I'd still be in battles but not as a front line fighter,_ he mused. _This could work very well._ "Would I be working with other jedi?"

A different master spoke. "No, you would be mostly assigned to non-clone divisions who are led by their own military leadership. Many systems have lent their military power to the Republic, and they are only led by their own superiors, not a jedi general. The clone troops greatly outnumber them." He coughed and relaxed further into his chair. "The Senate has requested we give these divisions increased medical help."

Mace picked up the conversation. "You would serve with one of these divisions unless your skills were needed elsewhere. What do you say?"

Anakin nodded. "I say yes."

* * *

Canon fire still sounded around him as Anakin ran to another downed soldier and let half his mind slip into the healing meditation. His partner, a Corellian Special Forces soldier, covered him as Anakin checked to see if the downed man could be saved. "We will be sending you into battlefields that, while not under direct attack, are too close to any active conflicts for our normal medics," his superior, a woman named Clarisse, had told him when he arrived from Corescant and was assigned to her command. "Solo here will alert you to any incoming troops. He's a good shot and better under pressure than most."

 _And she'd been right,_ the knight admitted as he came out of the trance and saw the rather sizeable group of droiid scouts that Solo had apparently decided were too close for comfort. Each droid's chest panel had a smoking hole in it. The man Anakin had tended slowly got to his feet and looked around, rather dazed. "Hey," Anakin said to get his attention. He pointed back the way he'd come. "base is that way. Get back there and tell someone to get you something to eat."

The still slightly dazed soldier nodded and started walking in the proferred direction. Solo scanned their surroundings for more droids but his tone was relaxed. "You're pretty fast at that," he commented.

Anakin shrugged. "That's why they asked me." But inwardly, he preened a bit. His healing skills had increased to the point that he could heal a punctured lung before it filled with blood and killed the soldier. The constant practice certainly had helped, but it was still impressive. He checked the next body. No pulse so he moved to the next one. Pulse weak, but still there, so Anakin raised his hand to signal Solo to keep watch. Half his mind went into the trance and the agitated Force around the wound in the man's gut screamed at the jedi. Flinching slightly, he started to mend the blaster wound. He hated stomach wounds. They made his mind wander in frightening directions, about what would happen to _him,_ to _them,_ if he ever got such a wound. _Then hurry up,_ Anakin ordered himself. _Do such a good job that they keep you here and not on the front lines._ In a few more seconds, the previously wounded man was staggering in the same direction of the first and the knight began looking for the next body.

"Skywalker," Solo spoke in a tone still laid back but slightly less so than before. "We've got company." A huge group of droids was headed their way. Solo swore. "That bunch from earlier must have told them we were here. What you wanna do?"

Anakin glanced around. There was a low trench to one side of their position, opposite from the direction of the approaching droids. "Come on. "He grabbed Solo's arm and pulled him in the direction of the trench. The older man looked like he wanted to protest, but kept his mouth shut and went with it anyway.

Together they ducked into the trench and faced the oncoming droids. "What's the plan?" Solo peaked over the rim at the oncoming enemy. "Pick them off as they come?"

Anakin shook his head. "We wait for them to pass up and take them down from behind."

"Are you crazy? They'll see us," Solo hissed out.

But Anakin smirked and threw up a shield. The other man waited, legs like coiled springs as the droids got closer and closer. His finger brushed the trigger of his blaster as the clank of metal joints passed directly over him and the jedi. Tension clogged the air around him as he and the knight waited for the final mechanical body to jump across the trench, or for one of the droids to alert the others to their presence. Something brushed his foot and he almost yanked the trigger before he saw that it was just Skywalker getting his attention. He pointed at one of Solo's guns, then at himself. The soldier got the message and handed over the weapon. Anakin of course was armed too, but Solo's guns had better aim and range than the smaller pistols Anakin carried. Quickly, the jedi popped his head over the rm of their trench, looked, and came back down. He pointed at the blasters, over the rime of the trench, and splayed out his fingers. Five seconds. The fingers counted down the seconds as both men readier their weapons.

When the hand was a fist, they both leveled their blasters against the edge of the trench and fired at the retreating droids. Pandemonium broke loose among the enemy and Solo laughed when he was two droids smack into each other even as he poured blaster fire into their ranks. A few turned around and tried to return fire, but Skywalker shot them down before they could do any real damage. The droid party was decimated in seconds.

Anakin scanned the perimeter and when he didn't see any more droids, jumped out of the trench and back onto the flat area of the battlefield. Solo was still staring at the pile of metal that used to be droids. "Why didn't they see us? Droids are idiots, but not that much," he puzzled aloud.

Testing another soldier for a pulse, the knight answered. "I threw up a cloaking shield. Comm command and tell them we're moving on."

Solo gestured around them. "But these guys still need help."

"They'll send more droids now that they know something dangerous is here. If we're here when those extra troops show up, we'll get tied down in a fight. It'll waste too much time, and some of the wounded might get caught in the crossfire. Better to move on."

Solo scowled slightly but commed the base anyway. Neatly, he tucked away his comm and hefted his blasters. "Where to now?"

With another sweep of his eyes on the horizon, Anakin started walking towards the right. "This way." Solo followed, but not without an eyeroll. Babysitting the kid may have turned out better than he'd expected, but the kid's attitude still rubbed him the wrong way.

 **I'm back! My trip was wonderful, thank you for asking, but I did miss you all, so here's an extra long chapter to make up for it. And you can let your wondering minds run rampant about my OC. I'm still debating what to do with him a bit, but it's an interesting idea. What do you guys think I should do? Let me know in a review!**


	14. Talks Between Fathers

A few hours later, Anakin was in the middle of mending a chest wound when Solo's comm buzzed in his pocket. He dug it out and flicked it on. "Solo reporting." Chatter sounded from the other end and the soldier nodded. "Okay, I'll bring him back in." The comm went dead and he flicked it off, stowing it back in his pocket and walking over to Skywalker.

Anakin came back to full awareness and noticed Solo standing next to him. "What?"

Bruskly, the soldier extended a hand to the kneeling jedi. "Command wants us back at base. Should we wait and take him back with us?" He jerked his head at the prone form in front of him.

Anakin's shoulders slumped a fraction. "No. He didn't make it." A jedi failing? The admission startled Solo a bit, but he didn't let the man see.

Instead he shrugged and said, "it happens. Let's get going." He let Solo haul him to he feet and if the hand helping him up squeezed his just a bit, Anakin didn't say. But he was grateful for the gesture. They walked back to camp in exhausted silence.

The instant they stepped into the base, Anakin was whisked off for a strategy meeting and Solo was informed that dinner was being served in the mess hall and that he should get something to eat. When he saw the jedi again, the man was even more exhausted, flopped out on his bed and looking worse than when the two of them had come in from their healing and guard duties respectively. "Did they let you get something to eat?" he asked. It was just to fill the silence, really.

The knight nodded just enough and let out a groan. "I ate during the meeting. Wouldn't have had time otherwise." His face scrunched as he levered himself upright with an elbow and started yanking off his boots. "Sometimes I think clone troops are better."

Solo shrugged out of his vest and asked over his shoulder, "Why? Because they don't talk back?"

Sluggishly, Anakin undoes his utility belt and answers, "They don't argue, and can see the bigger picture."

Sitting down on the bed and starting on his own boots, Solo scoffed. "Yeah, because they don't think for themselves. They're just like droids."

Then the man paused and looked over at the jedi. The glare was enough to make the older man take a figurative step back. "You've never fought with clones before," the knight growled out. "You don't know a thing about them."

The soldier threw up his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey, I'm just saying."

"Then don't," Anakin growled again and laid down on the bed, turned towards the wall. For a few seconds, he laid there scowling. Then his expression changed to irritation when a low electronic hum filled the silence. He flipped back towards Solo and glowered at the man. "What are you doing? Can't it wait?"

Solo rolled his eyes. "Calm down, I'm just reading an old message. I'll be done in a minute so you can stop glaring at me." Then he laughed.

"What's so funny," the jedi snapped, but there wasn't as much bite as before.

"Just something Han did." When he saw the blank face of his roomie, Solo elaborated. "He's my son." A fond smile teased his lips. "Only ten and already up to his elbows in speeder engines."

Anakin looked over in slight disbelief. "You're married?"

But the soldier shook his head. "I met his mom before the war. She was a mechanic with my unit, he get that from her. When she told me she didn't have time for a baby, well…" he went silent.

The knight eyed Solo. "Who's taking care of him for you, then?"

"My old friend Maz."

That snapped Anakin to attention. "Maz? As in, Maz Catana?"

Solo looked at him sidelong. "Yeah. You know her?"

"No, but I've heard about her. Doesn't she run a huge spaceport in the Outer Rim?"

The soldier snorted. "I'd hardly call that place huge. It's more of a den for smugglers and merchants than a real port. Bumped into her there while I was doing some bodyguard work for a merchant ship, and I visit her when I can, or at least I did. She'll look after him." He glanced at his companion and noticed the thoughtful look on his face. "I got a picture of him. You want a look?"

Anakin nodded so Solo swiped the pad out of the letter and swiped into the photo section. He picked one and handed the datapad to the jedi. The knight studied the photo. The kid in the center had scruffy brown hair and his hands were still slightly black, probably from working with the engine of the speeder behind him. The garage the photo was taken in had a door open in the background, and Anakin spotted what looked like a large statue draped in fabric. The kid was smiling like he'd just fixed the engine with one hand tied behind his back and his eyes closed and one arm was extended, probably holding whatever he'd used to take the picture.

Anakin handed the pad back to his partner. "Looks like a handful."

With a chuckle the other man nodded. "Better believe it." But his smile said he wouldn't change that for the world. Still smiling softly, Solo started getting ready for bed again, signaling an end to the conversation. Anakin laid down and rolled to face the wall again, but not to shut out his partner. His flesh hand drifted down to his middle and ran over the swell of the twins. _Do I have a son too,_ he wondered fondly. _Is one of you two a boy? Will you love flying and building the same way I do? Or will you be more like Padme?_

His happiness faltered slightly as he thought of his wife. Padme hadn't been able to visit when he'd returned from his mission with Obi-Wan, and he missed her terribly. He couldn't even write letters to her, or she to him. Mail had to go through this particular military's security screening, and someone might question why a senator and a jedi would write to each other. But she had her duties and friends on Corescant and he had the twins. _And maybe Solo,_ he admitted, throwing a look over his shoulder at the other man. The knight hadn't expected him to be a dad, let alone a single father. But his son obviously meant a lot to him, if the waves of affection coming off the man when he described the boy were anything to go by. _Maybe I should keep in contact with him._ He winced. _In case the Council expels me._ He fell asleep with one hand on his children.

* * *

Palpatine scanned the list of Jedi knights and masters the Council had offered as possible body guards and liaisons for him. Most were greenhorns who'd been adversely affected by their experiences with the actual fighting of the war and had requested a "less disruptive" mission. He sneered at the list. Cowards, the lot of them. Channeling such emotion would have done so much more for their abilities, but like all fools, they shied away from the power and hid behind their pitiful Code. Though, he supposed he should be grateful for their foolishness. It was the main thing stopping them from finding him. Shrouded in the Dark Side as he was, it would take someone with a deep connection to the rich, black power to root him out. Such a person did not exist outside of himself. Not even his current apprentice had yet reached that level, and probably never would.

Which was why this list was so frustrating! The single name he actually wanted was absent! Anakin Skywalker had already experiences some of what the Dark Side had to offer. Turning him would be easy. And then all that tantalizing power would he at Palpatine's fingertips and he could throw off his disguise of benevolent and wise Supreme Chancellor. But all these plans were moot while the boy remained unreachable.

The old man tossed the list on his desk and started pacing. Young Skywalker was unavailable at the moment, but a greater battle would surely draw the promising knight out of whatever hidey hole the Council had squirrelled him away in. He would meet with Greivous that evening and choose the place.

 **Hi again! So I decided to go ahead and make Solo Han's dad. I'll probably bring him in later too. And I just loved Maz from the latest Star Wars, so I couldn't resist. What did you guys think? How many of you were expecting this? Review and tell me!**


	15. Dizzy Spots and New Assignments

Plasma cannons boomed in the distance as Anakin finished healing a nasty shoulder would. Once he came back to full awareness, he looked for Zen. He'd learned the man's first name about a week or so after he'd told the jedi about his son. Crouching, Zen waved to him from the side of another downed soldier. The two had figured out quickly that if the other man looked for survivors while Anakin worked on healing, they could save a lot more soldiers. Anakin sat next to the man and reached out through the Force while Solo swept the area for threats. This man, it seemed, had merely been knocked unconscious. The jedi jolted his system into awareness with a small Force push on his consciousness, explained to the man where to go to get help, and looked for Zen and the next wounded.

This one had a chest wound that had just grazed the man's heart muscle. Slowly, Anakin eased the internal bleeding and guided the blood cells back into the arteries and veins, then sealed the ripped tissue back into place. He nudged him awake, more gently than he had with the previous man, and yelled to Zen, "Get base to send a stretcher out here." Zen nodded and flipped on his comm as the jedi moved on again. Solo scanned the horizon and didn't see any of the enemy, so he glanced back at Anakin doing the healing.

Except he wasn't healing.

The jedi was hunched over, one hand on the ground as if to steady himself and the other clutching his head. Zen raced over. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Anakin answered quickly. "I'm fine. Any droids around?"

"Not a single metalhead. You sure you don't need to get back to base?"

"I told you, I'm fine. Just tired." But Solo didn't look convinced. "There are still wounded out here. We'll stay until they call us back," Anakin ordered, lacing the sentence with a Force Suggestion for extra emphasis.

Reluctantly, Solo caved. "Fine. But when we get back, you let a medic check you out."

Anakin waved away the comment and dove into the healing trance before Solo could say more. He quickly healed the bad burn on the man's thigh and stimulated the blood cell production, but didn't immediately come back to awareness. Instead, he let his attention drift to himself. The twins were still safely ensconced within him and he didn't see any agitation in the Living Force that showed a wound or sickness. So what was wrong with him?

Was it something to do with the Force? Sometimes large shifts caused by catastrophes or massive loos of life could affect Force sensitive individuals. His nerves jangled. Had something happened? He rose out of the trance and ran a hand through his tied back hair. He nearly pulled it out of its short horsetail and the slight pain jolted him back to reality. He firmly shoved all worry into the Force. He could think about this later. Right now, he had work to do. So, he looked up and saw Zen kneeling by another downed soldier. He walked over and started to heal again.

Several hours later, Zen pulled an exhausted Anakin back to base and shoved him towards the field hospital. "Go get yourself checked out," he ordered with all seriousness. The jedi walked in the direction of the medical tent until he felt Zen's presence turn down an alley of barracks. Then he bolted away for the mess. Anything big enough to cause that king of reaction from him was bound to be a good gossip topic and food was the best way to get someone to start chatting.

He hung around the mess for an hour or so, ears primed for major news instead of the average troop gossip. Even switching tables once or twice, he didn't hear anything major enough to have caused his dizzy spell. Disgruntled and scowling, he finished his food, left his plate with the rest of the dirty dishes, and headed to the bathroom for a little privacy. The room he shared with Zen would have been better, but his partner might question why he was back so soon when medics didn't like to release high profile soldiers like Anakin without a full checkup. Those would take a long time. So, bathroom it was.

Without glancing around, a sure way to make people suspicious of you, Anakin got into one of the stalls and locked the door. Quickly, he loosened his belt, pulled his shirt up and off, and ran his flesh hand over his middle. A smile softened his face and he closed his eyes. They were bigger now, so much so that he was beginning to worry that someone might notice. Life pulsed beneath his fingertips and he wondered when he would feel them for the first time. But his dizziness couldn't be good for them. He ran a quick scan on himself with the Force. Everything seemed fine, except…wait, was his blood flow different? He looked more closely and noticed that many of the blood vessels interwoven with and around the space he'd made for the two were under more pressure than before.

Then it hit him and he relaxed. Pregnancy could sometimes cause dizzy spells, especially during the second trimester when the body was adjusting to the growing womb and put extra strain on the blood vessels in that area. _Actually, I should have expected this,_ he thought. _My body wasn't made to take extra pressure in that area, and there's twice as much since there's two of them growing._ But even though it was natural, it was still dangerous. What if he had a dizzy spell while he was fighting? What if it happened again while Zen was around and the man _made_ him go to the medics instead of just dropping him off? He could get found out! He was already worried that someone might notice his growing bump, he didn't need another thing to make people suspicious!

 _Calm down,_ Anakin berated himself. He took a deep breath and released the almost panic into the Force. Then he started turning the problem over in his mind. It was the pressure of the expanding pseudo-uterus that caused the dizzy spells. _It probably doesn't help that I'm wearing a belt on top of it._ He made a note to wear it more loosely, well, as loosely as he dared. And getting up and down quickly probably wasn't a good idea either, since that could make a normal person dizzy. He'd had to try not to do that while he was out in the field. He wouldn't be able to do more until he could do some research, which was next to impossible on base with the lack of privacy and computer terminals, but as soon as he could, he would. Then a message came over the base-wide comm system and Anakin got up to leave.

About an hour later, Anakin was packing his clothes when Zen walked into the room. "Already tired of me," the man joked, and the comment made the jedi's lips twitch at the corners.

Shaking his head, he said, "The Jedi Council contacted the general. They need me to team up with my old master for a while in a couple firefights. They've got a transport waiting for me." He zipped up his bag and threw it over his shoulder. "Bye Zen. May the Force be with you." His smile turned into a smirk. "Even if you don't believe in it."

"You too," Zen replied, before his face screwed up and he yelled at the retreating jedi, "And I do believe in the Force!"

 **Hello again! So happy to see you all again this week. I must warn you, this chapter will make a great deal less sense if you don't go back to the last one and read it through again. I added some new material a few days ago to help this chapter make sense.**

 **I've been choosing my side effects for Anakin very carefully. He doesn't have all the normal hormones usually floating around in a woman's system during this time, so things like mood swings and morning sickness, mostly caused by hormones, will not make an appearance. Things caused by other factors, like dizzy spells, will probably show up. That, and I hate when someone writes an Mpreg and gives the poor character every symptom under the sun!**

 **Please review!**


	16. Back in Battle

Anakin was glad to be back in jedi robes, but not about being put on the front lines again. How was he supposed to fight and keep the babies safe if he had a dizzy spell during a firefight? This whole thing was a terrible situation, and he didn't know how long it would go on for. Some of the other jedi fought on the same planet with the same troops for months! That couldn't happen to him!

 _Stop it! You're jumping to conclusions,_ He lectured himself silently. _My permanent posting was supposed to be as a field medic. This is probably a worse spot than usual, and it'll be over once Obi-Wan and I figure it out._ But if it was worse than normal, he should be as far away as possible! He'd be putting everyone around him in danger, including Obi-Wan, if he went into a fight when he wasn't in peak condition. He'd just have to be careful and pray a dizzy spell didn't hit while he was fighting.

The ship landed quickly and Anakin was hustled off it and into a speeder. "We're glad you're here, sir," one of the clone commanding officers said as they rode out over the battle. "A few days ago the droids abruptly changed tactics. We suspect a change in leadership and are doing all we can to counter it. However, those changed tactics forced us into a prolonged engagement as we evacuated troops and civilians. We're being forced to retreat, but the droids focused their attacks on the transports meant to take troops and civilian personal offworld. General Kenobi has been trying to distract them non-stop for almost seventeen hours. He's succeeded somewhat but he needs help, which was why we asked for you to come in."

The other jedi wasn't hard to find. The pilot just followed the trail of droid corpses and found the flashing blue streak in the battle. Anakin jumped over the side of the speeder, cushioned his landing with the Force, and jokingly said, "Sorry I'm late." Obi-Wan didn't acknowledge him and continued to hack away at the surrounding droid troops which abruptly tripled as their commanding officer realized just who had landed on the battlefield.

The tactic of adding a second jedi to the effort seemed to be working. More and more droids surrounded the two men, leaving their previous course for the transports and the pair worked hard to keep it that way, slashing, hacking, and using Force pushes and pulls to destroy the droids. But Obi-Wan was tired from hours of this intense fighting and Anakin couldn't concentrate with the fears and misgivings from earlier swimming in his head. Eventually one of them made a mistake.

Anakin's cry came from just behind him but Obi-Wan didn't dare glance back. He leveled the five droids in front of him with a surge of Force energy, frying their circuits. Quickly, he slashed at another droid coming up from the left and severed it at the neck. Crumpling, it smashed into the one behind if and took down a whole column of metal soldiers, which in turn slowed down the ones standing too close to them.

Their stupid decision to stand so close together gave the jedi some breathing room and he yelled to Anakin. "Are you alright?"

"It's just a graze," was the strained reply.

Obi-Wan was tempted to sigh. He'd probably have to drag Ani to a medic after this. Then the Force shrieked a warning and Obi-Wan ducked. Blaster fire whizzed over his head and he shoved thoughts of former padawans with ridiculously high pain tolerances to the back of his head. Blue light whirled as Obi-Wan started attacking again.

Meanwhile, Anakin was caught between panic, rage, and protective fatherly instincts. His blade, held one-handed, cut down any droid close enough as his other hand pressed against the wound on his side. It was too close to the twins. _I won't lose them because of this!_ His scowl deepened and he lashed out with the Force. All the droids within five feet of the now furious Jedi crashed into those behind them. The red haze of panic and anger faded and Anakin used the breather to shift his utility belt and cloth wrap around his waist so they put pressure on the wound. There was a clanking to his right. Anakin struck out with his saber and cut the droid in half.

Obi-Wan spared a glance behind when the droids around him were knocked back. Good, Anakin had temporarily taken care of the wound. "What are we supposed to be doing again?" the younger man asked.

The master hit another two droids with a sideways cut and threw back, "We're drawing fire, remember?"

Anakin grunted as he deflected a dozen or more blaster bolts back into the mass of droids. "And why were we doing that again?"

"Civilian and troop evacuation."

The younger man nodded. "Right," he responded as he thrust the tip of his blade into a droid's chest unit and quickly withdrew it to slice through the one next to it. He ducked more blaster fire. "How long will that take?"

Obi-Wan spun and sliced through a droid trying to catch him off guard from the left. Another warning came and he back flipped over more incoming fire. He landed and immediately dropped to his knees, thrusting out an open palm. Several droids rocketed back from the Force push. "Hopefully not much longer," he answered. "Why?"

"No reason," Anakin said. _So I can stop fighting and make sure the twins are alright,_ he thought. Thankfully his blaster wound was just a burn so he wasn't losing much blood, but he still worried. Ani swerved to the side as a blaster bolt flew past his left close enough to heat the skin of his arm. He snarled and reached with the Force. With a leap, a gun from a dead droid jumped into his outstretched hand and he fired into the mass behind him and Obi-Wan. Several went down and he kept right on firing.

"Anakin!" He heard the shout and looked back at his old master. "Up!" The younger man leapt up as hard as he could. Nimbly, a speeder with an open cockpit and high shields on all sides caught both men. A few droids fired shots at the retreating craft but they either missed or bounced off the shields. Obi-Wan climbed over a row of seats to the pilot. "How did the evacuation go?" He honestly wanted to know.

The clone gave a small smile. "Fine, sir. All troop and civilian personal made it into hyperspace. The only ship left is for you."

He squeezed the pilot's shoulder in thanks. "Is there a medical kit?" Obi-Wan asked.

The copilot, another clone, answered. "Behind my seat."

Obi-Wan nodded and found the durasteel box strapped to the floor of the speeder. He unstrapped it and climbed back over the seats to Anakin. With chagrin, Obi-Wan saw that the boy hadn't done anything to help the wound, not even taking off his utility belt. For some reason, he'd gone straight into a meditation. Well that wasn't going to stop him, Obi-Wan decided. The belt was the first thing to go, then the obi, which was of course black. Why Anakin liked black so much, he had no idea. It seemed rather contradictory, with how the Jedi were the light side of the Force. _It's probably just to hide all the stains,_ Obi-Wan remembered fondly as he pulled up the man's tunic to expose his torso, _grease monkey that he is. Hello, what's this?_ The wound was healing right before his eyes! New muscle and skin pushed the dead, blackened flesh out of the way. _Well, he did study healing._ He went to pull Ani's tunic back down when he noticed something. The younger man's stomach wasn't as flat or defined as he remembered. The six pack's defining lines had given way to a smooth curve that extended outwards ever so slightly.

Then Anakin's eyes snapped open and he moved away from Obi-Wan so abruptly that the speeder rocked a little. One of the pilots looked over his shoulder and asked, "Is everything alright back there?"

"Yes," Anakin shouted back, scowling at Obi-Wan. The pilot went back to his flying. The sullen ex-padawan made a grab for his wrap and utility belt, still glowering. Obi-wan turned away, a smile lingering at the corners of his mouth. If Anakin reacted that violently to him simply noticing the younger man had put on some weight, teasing him about this was going to be fun. Not that he would, but…well, it still made good ammunition, just in case.

 **Obi-Wan knows! Well not really, but enough to freak Anakin out. I just realized this is the second time I hurt Anakin in this story. What did you guys think?**

 **Also, a lot of people have asked me about other Senators' reactions to Padme's sudden lack of a pregnancy. This simple fact is none of them knew. That's why there was no reaction from any of them.**

 **Review!**


	17. No More Combat Missions

When they got out of the speeder and boarded the transport off the planet, Anakin made himself scarce and fled to one of the engine rooms in the hope that it would be empty. Mercifully, it was. He sank down onto the narrow catwalk and quickly slipped into the healing trance for the second time that day. He'd used it to heal the wound in the speeder, but Obi-Wan had pulled him out of it before he could check on the twins. To his relief, both were fine and blazing brightly. The blaster burn hadn't even grazed the inner wall of muscle tissue. His shoulders sagged in relief, but then tensed up again as he remembered what had happened on the way back.

Obi-Wan had seen his bump.

Splaying his hands over the slightly curved skin, Anakin ran over the possibilities in his head. There wasn't a whole lot of difference yet, he knew. He'd read during his research that strong abs could hide a bump for a long time, and that was certainly the case with him. His height also helped by making the curve gentler, instead of abrupt like it would be if he was shorter. Still, the fact that Obi-Wan had noticed at all was not good. _I'll ask for a Sabbatical as soon as I get back to the Temple._ He stroked the bump up and down with his flesh hand and smiled.

"Jedi Skywalker." Anakin immediately jolted his hand away from his belly as his name blared out through the ship-wide comm system. "Please come to the bridge. There is a message for you and General Kenobi from the Jedi Council."

 _That can't be good,_ he cringed as he got back to his feet. Quickly, he slipped out of the ship's engine section and made his way to the bridge. One of the higher ranked officers nodded to him as he came in. "General Skywalker, General Kenobi," the ship's highest ranked officer, a colonel, addressed the two Jedi. "We received this message just before planetary departure." He nodded to another clone who hit the 'play' switch.

A blue holoimage popped up on the floor, Mace Windu in miniature. "Master Kenobi," Mace began. "We've discovered a disturbing undercurrent of the war and believe that this entire conflict has been perpetuated by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious in an attempt to gain power over the Senate. Even more disturbing, he planned to use functions programmed into the Republic's clone troops to wipe out the Jedi. In light of this new information, the Council is sending you and Skywalker to end the fighting on Isildaan. If this war is indeed orchestrated by the Sith, all conflict must be stopped at once. Once you have withdrawn our troops from Isildaan, return to the Temple at once for further investigation and action. May the Force be with you." The image vanished.

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, promised himself that he would think more on this later, and turned to the colonel. "Please take the ship out of hyperspace and calculate a new jump to Isildaan, and send a message to the troops there to alert them of our arrival. Anakin and I will be in my quarters if you have any pressing concerns." With that, he left the bridge with his younger companion following behind. When they reached their small shared cabin, Obi-Wan sat down on his bed and motioned for Anakin to so the same. The door slid shut and both jedi wilted slightly. "We have been blind," the master lamented. "The Sith have been toying with us for who knows how long and we never realized." He ran a hand through his short hair. "How could this have happened?"

The other man leaned forward, rested an elbow on his knee and scrubbed his flesh hand through his curls. "I don't know, Obi-Wan. But at least we know now."

"But why didn't we sense it sooner," Obi-Wan vented. "Someone should have seen this through the Force."

Anakin let his hands dangle between his bent knees. "Master, none of us have been able to meditate on things like that recently. We've been too busy with the war. Even Master Yoda's probably spent more time on thinking of strategies than searching the Force for stuff like this." Then his back straightened and he looked Obi-Wan straight in the eyes. "But we know now, so we can end this. We should get some sleep. Once we finish this next mission, we can get back to the Temple and find out what happened." _And I can finally stop hiding,_ he added in his mind. _Once I go on Sabbatical, I can focus on my children and stop worrying about the rest of the world._

* * *

"I hate ground battles," Anakin hissed through his teeth as he sliced through a group of droids trying to surprise him from behind. The troop extraction on Isildaan was proving to be much trickier than they'd thought. The clones had been right in the middle of a pitched battle when they arrived, but it was going poorly. And that was why the two jedi had jumped into the fray.

"Ani, get to the ridge," Obi-Wan urged through a comm. "We need to free a group of clones. They've been pinned."

"Fine," he replied rather tersely. The Force flashed a warning and Anakin swayed back. A blaster bolt singed the fabric over his middle and he growled, sending the guilty droid into a knot of its fellows with a Force push even as he twisted out of the way of more blaster fire. _Get to the high ground,_ he growled inwardly. He began slicing his saber through the droids in front of him, wielding the blade one-handed as he sent more droids to either side with Force pushes from his other hand. A blaster bolt came from behind and he jumped straight up. The bolt passed beneath him and hit one of the droids that had tried to attack from the front. Grinning at the artificial stupidity, he landed and continued his charge towards the ridge.

Obi-Wan reached the ride seconds after he did and Anakin turned around pressing his back to his old master's. A droid came at them from the right and Obi-Wan sliced through its neck. "What took you so long," he shouted.

 _Protecting my middle,_ Anakin growled behind his thick shields. "I got here before you did," he answered aloud as he snapped several mechanical necks with a twist of the Force and caught a blaster bolt with his light saber. _Why do they always aim for the twins?_ It was getting harder to protect the babies.

"Yes," Obi-wan conceded as he kicked back another droid. The mechanical soldiers seemed to get that the battle wasn't worth more losses and the swarm abated. Anakin took a moment to breathe and restrained himself from pressing a hand to his stomach. The curve there was more pronounced there and his Jedi tunics were noticeably tighter. Forget protection, simply keeping them hidden was getting harder.

He glanced over his shoulder at Obi-Wan. "Where are the trapped Stormtroopers," he asked as he unclipped the two small but surprisingly powerful blasters from his belt.

The older of the two gestured to their right at a group of white figures trapped against a steep hill by a ring of droids. "We need to break them out," Obi-Wan explained.

Anakin thought for a moment and then handed his blasters to Obi-Wan. "Hold these, I want to try something."

He clutched the guns and watched Anakin's Force presence flare. There was a loud clatter in the direction of the pinned clones and Obi-Wan looked over. His mouth fell open at the sight of almost all the droids dead on the ground. He turned back to his friend. "What did you do?"

"I fried their circuits," Anakin explained as he took back his blasters and clipped them back onto his belt. _Who knew that healing meditation worked with droids?_ He smiled to himself as he reactivated his light saber and plunged back into the fray. Then his smile vanished as he swerved to the side to avoid yet another blaster bolt aimed at the twins. _That's it, no more combat missions,_ he promised himself.

 **Hi Everyone! This may be my last chapter for a while, since I'm getting married next week. That said, a few of you need questions answered. To those wondering about the droids, I can honestly say I forgot about them. I know, bad, but I'm making adjustments to add them into the story at least a little. To those wondering why Anakin didn't follow up what he found in the clones, it was just something he saw and passed on to the council. Then he let them worry about that since he was preoccupied with other things, namely convincing Padme and then taking care of Luke and Leia.**

 **Anyways, hope you like the new chapter and I really hope you all review!**


	18. Back on Corescant

The troop extraction from Isildaan was long and grueling. Anakin was happy to be back on Corescant. He'd sent a discreet message ahead to Padme, teling her when he'd be back, and he was very glad he had. The Force rippled from the figure approaching his apartment, resonating with his wife's joy. Padme rushed into the room as soon as the door opened, heavy senatorial robes flapping around her. Smiling slightly at the sight of his usually composed wife fighting for breath after her run to his quarters, Anakin swept her into a hug and kissed her forehead. "Hello, Padme. How are you?"

"Worried about you," she said as she backed up. She gave him a quick once-over, looking for any injuries. "Is everything alright? When you told me it was time to stop taking missions, I thought-"

He leaned forward and kissed her. Padme could feel his smile and relaxed a little. "Everything's fine," he said,  
"better than fine, actually." Anakin grabbed her hand and pressed it to his middle.

She gasped when she felt the curve there and looked up at him, eyes shining. "Is that them?"

"Yes," he laughed. "They're just growing faster than we thought. I can't be around Obi-Wan much longer, he's starting to tease me about my weight." Padme chuckled and Anakin rolled his eyes before sobering. "Padme, I'm going to get much bigger that we thought before we knew we were having twins. I need to get away now before more people notice. The only reason Obi-Wan suspects anything is because he knows me, but others will start to notice." She nodded and then a quick giggle escaped her. "What?" he asked, though he really wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"It's nothing," Padme hurriedly replied. She really didn't need Ani going through her head and seeing the image of him with a huge baby bump. But she tucked it away for later to laugh about.

Wisely, the jedi stayed out of her head and focused on their previous topic of discussion. "I'm asking the council for a six month Sabbatical tomorrow. That's long enough to have the twins and recover afterwards."

She nodded. "Where will you go?"

"The planet Docilium. Mace took a Sabbatical there before, so it's friendly to jedi. It's close enough to Coruscant that you can visit, and away from the war." He stroked back her hair and kissed her forehead again. "I hope you can visit a lot."

She smiled and hugged him again. "I love you, Ani. I'll visit as much as I can." Then she let him go and tugged him toward the small kitchen. "We should make dinner." So Padme pulled a smiling Anakin over to the stove and they started cooking.

They decided to make soup, since Padme was convinced Anakin wasn't eating enough vegetables for the twins and her husband decided to humor her. So he cut up the vegetables and bantha meat while she set a pot to boil and started selecting spices. Padme looked over at the piles of prepared ingredients and frowned. "Anakin, why didn't you chop the celery?"

Then he suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth and looked away from the aforementioned vegetable. "I…sort of…" he took his hand away from his mouth and grimaced. "It makes me sick."

Padme's eyes registered the unease on his face and she quickly put the celery back in the cooling unit, out of sight of her husband. Visibly relaxing, he smiled at her and started dumping the chopped meat and other ingredients into the boiling pot. Padme quickly looked away into another cupboard for cups. She did feel sorry that he had to go through that, especially when she wasn't there to help him, but she couldn't keep the grin off her face. The thought of a powerful jedi knight being beaten by a vegetable was sort of funny, even if she wished it hadn't been her jedi knight. But the nausea made her think of some of the other symptoms of pregnancy and she asked without thinking. "Have you had any cravings?"

Anakin nearly dropped his stirring spoon into the pot. "What?"

Padme plunged on. "Anakin, don't you know what cravings are?" She looked over at him and saw his rapidly shaking head. Honestly, jedi knew almost nothing about the facts of life. "Didn't you read about cravings when you researched this?"

He thought about that for a moment. "I read that mothers sometimes eat things they normally wouldn't if they don't get enough of a certain nutrient. Is that a craving?"

Barely, Padme restrained herself from sighing in exhasperation. "Yes, Ani, that's a craving. Some women eat strange things while they're pregnant." She smiled as she remembered something. "My mother said she ate scrambled eggs with salsa the whole time she was pregnant with me."

"What's salsa," Anakin asked. It sounded interesting.

Now Padme really did sigh. "I'll try to find some so I can bring it for you to try. But you haven't had any cravings?" He screwed up his face, thinking. Then Padme smelled something burning, "Ani, stir!" He jumped a bit and made a grab for the spoon, but it fell on the floor. He grabbed the hot stovetop for balance and yanked his hand away a moment later. Padme immediately grabbed his hand to steady him, but she grabbed the burnt one and he yelled, yanking it away. The force of the yank sent him tumbling backwards and he landed hard on his butt. Padme looked at him sprawled on the floor and couldn't help the giggle that slipped out between her lips but she quickly shoved the mirth down and helped him over to the sink. He put his hand under cold running water while Padme returned to the stove and quickly started stirring the burning soup while he tended to his hand.

After a few seconds, she heard the water shut off and strong arms wrapped around her ribs. Next, he tucked his chin over the curve between her neck and shoulder. When he spoke, the word tickled her ear. "Why did you laugh?"

"I couldn't help it," she replied. "I was just worried about you before, so when I saw you looking so startled, compared to how you normally are, I couldn't help it."

His grip loosened slightly. "How am I different?"

Laughing, she placed one of her hands on his arms around her. "It's just different to see you so," she thought for a moment, "open. Like there's nothing for you to hide or brood about."

Sweetly, he kissed her ear and held her tighter. "When I'm with you, I don't," he whispered.

 _But you do,_ she didn't say aloud. _You never used to tell me anything without me asking and it was frustrating. You've changed wince you started carrying them,_ she mused, _and it's for the better._

 **I know I said I'd be too busy, but I had just enough time this morning to finish this chapter and upload it for you all. Here's a lovely family moment for you all. At this point in the story, Anakin's almost five months along, which for twins means he's getting pretty visible. It can still be mistaken as just gained weight, but not for much longer. And thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, especially those who congratulated me on my upcoming marriage, You're so sweet!**

 **Please Review and I'll see you all next week!**


	19. Ending on Good Terms

"We move against the Supreme Chancellor by the end of the month," Mace proclaimed to the Council. "We have evidence of his manipulation of events going back to before the Naboo Crisis. The courts will have to let us."  
"Decided, we have," Yoda remarked. "Dispatch a master we must, to capture General Grevious. Once done that is, over, the war will be."

Obi-Wan stood from his seat. "I will go."

Yoda nodded. "Hoped you would come forward, I did."

Mace also nodded. "You will leave immediately," he commanded. Obi-Wan bowed and left the chamber to pack. "In other news," the dark-skinned master continued, "Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker has asked for a six month Sabbatical."

"What were his reasons," another of the Council asked.

Yoda answered. "Spoken with him I have, of choosing a padawan. Wishes to center himself, he does, before such a choice, he makes." Many of the masters nodded in agreement with this statement.

Quickly, Mace counted the nodding heads and did the math in his head. They had a majority vote. "Then the Council agrees." He tapped the arm of his chair and a message screen popped up. He typed up a message to Anakin about his Sabbatical, paused, and added at the end that Obi-Wan was leaving if he wanted to see his old master before the man left. He sent off the message and turned back to his fellow masters. "What is the next order of business?"

Back in his rooms, Anakin jolted when the message pad on the wall gave a sharp trill. He tapped it eagerly and read the message. _Good, they approved it._ He sighed, and kept reading. _Wait, Obi-Wan's leaving?_ He was gone and out the door without even finishing the message. He probably wouldn't see the man again until the twins arrived, if things went smoothly. No way was he letting the man get away without saying goodbye.

It was clear he'd only just caught the man. He almost ran Obi-Wan over in the hallway. "Excuse me Ani, I have to get going," he said as he tried to get around the knight.

"Yeah, mission, Master Windu told me," Anakin puffed out.

Obi-Wan's brows drew together. "Why would he do that?"

"The knight shrugged. "He probably thought I would want to see you off."

"Why would he think that," the older man asked. "I won't be gone very long, a month at the most."

"But I won't be here when you get back," Anakin answered.

"Did the Council give you a message as well?" That wasn't so unusual. Anakin had a high mission success rate, especially with combat missions. His moniker "The Hero with no Fear" was well earned.

But his friend shook his head. "They're letting me go on Sabbatical. I'll be gone for half a year."

Obi-Wan's eyebrows shot up. Anakin, taking himself out of the action? "What brought this on," he asked. He started walking down the hall and the knight kept pace with him.

His friend shrugged. "Master Yoda's been asking me about training a padawan. I wanted to take some time to think about it," he reasoned. "I also wanted to practice the healing skills I learned a few months ago."

The older man nodded, and then grinned. "Well, I hope you'll keep up with the rest of your training." He let his eyes drift down to Anakin's developing paunch and the younger jedi shifted his cloak to cover the area. But instead of the expected burst of irritation, Obi-Wan felt a spike of fear hammer through his friend. _What?_

He quickly looked up at Anakin's face and only saw his usual scowl. "Anakin, is everything alright?" Grumbling was his only answer and that assured Obi-Wan a bit, but still. The Force did not lie.

Suddenly, Anakin stopped walking. "We're here," he said, pointing through the open doorway in front of them. Beyond it was one of the Temple's hangers with the ship assigned to Obi-Wan. His scowl lightened. " Which droid did they give you? To navigate?"

Obi-Wan grinned teasingly at the question. "Your old friend R2D2. Our Engineering department finally finished repairing him. Honestly, what did you two get into that left him that damaged?"

Anakin laughed, remembering a space battle involving an asteroid field, a few extra crates of electrical circuits, and way too much ion cannon fire for comfort. "You don't want to know." Then his face grew more serious. "I hope you succeed, Obi-Wan. May the Force be with you." He bowed, and the older man pulled him into an unexpected hug the instant he straightened. His friend stiffened in his hold, but Obi-Wan was used to that.

"And with you, Anakin." With that, he detached himself from his old apprentice and headed for his ship.

* * *

Yoda was worried about the state of the Order. They'd won the war against the Seperatists and avoided the proverbial bomb planted in their midst by the Sith with that bio-chip, but the Dark Side had grown far too prevalent amongst the Order. In fact, it was disturbing, just where the growth happened. Among the Jedi who fought, those without a Padawan showed the greatest strain, and those without a strong bond between Master and Apprentice were the second most affected. What caused these changes and what about those specific Jedi made them more vulnerable? He needed to get to the root of this matter. Perhaps the best way to begin was by interviewing some of the Jedi who'd been most affected. Well, at least he had a starting point.

 **Here's the next chapter. I know it's a bit shorter, but I've been very busy lately. Honeymoon and all that. But I finally answered half of the question of where the droids have been this whole time. Enjoy, and Please Review!**


	20. A New Home

Anakin landed his small one-man fighter in a field only just large enough for it at the back of the small house he'd picked to stay in until the twins came. Bordered by woods on all sides, the abode was private and hidden from prying eyes. Carefully, he lifted himself out of the cockpit, taking care to protect his middle, and jumped down to the ground. He landed in a crouch with one hand on the ground for balance and got up, walking to an area behind the cockpit that acted as a storage area. The hatch opened with the hiss of escaping air and he pulled duffel after duffel of supplies out of the compartment until they surrounded him. _I'm surprised they packed all of this in there,_ he thought, looking around at the many bags of supplies. _Well,_ he muttered inwardly as he slung a bag over each shoulder and grabbed two more, _better get everything inside._

He opened the door and walked into what looked like a back entrance. White walls and a tiled floor gave the room a utilitarian look, with a shelf for your shoes and a coat hook on the wall. He continued through the small hallway into a much larger room. There was a small kitchen to one side, so he left the bags there to unpack later and decided to explore the place a bit.

He walked past the small dining area adjoining the kitchen, through an open doorway, and into a short hallway. The walls were painted a light green and he wanted to slip off his boots and dig his toes into the carpet. There were five doors, two on either side and one at the far end. He peeked inside the one closest to him and saw a small bed with a dresser and nightstand. _Looks like a room for an apprentice,_ he thought closing the door. _Then this must be for the master._ He opened the door across from the small bedroom and found a much larger room, this one with a door in the wall to the left. Curious, he walked over and opened it. "Well at least it's clean," he mumbled to himself as he looked around at the small 'fresher' unit, although this one had an old-fashioned washing machine and one corner was full of what looked like medical equipment. He'd have to check that out later and see if he could, um, repurpose some of it. Viewing the twins with the Force would work for the most part, but he needed an ultrasound machine and a few other things if he wanted to keep the babies healthy.

After he inspected the shower to see how it worked, Anakin headed back into the hallway to see what was behind door number four. Actually, when he saw it, he realized he'd been mistaken. It wasn't a real door, but an empty doorway that led into a very nice living room. It was green, like the hallway, and he sat down on the couch settled in the middle of the room. A patch of sunlight from a skylight in the room's ceiling warmed his hair as he looked out the bay windows at a patch of jungle. _Well, this is definitely a nice spot for meditation, and who knows,_ he speculated, _maybe it was built that way on purpose._ With that thought in mind, he examined the room again. It was wide, mostly empty with a high ceiling. If he moved the few pieces of furniture against the sides of the room, he could use it to practice his saber work and other forms of combat training. _At least until I get too big for that,_ he laughed. He walked through the hall and out the back door again to grab some more supplies.

It was when he was unpacking the food and saw a packet of Padme's favorite tea that he remembered his promise to send her a message when he arrived. Hastily, he put the tea back in the duffel and walked out to his fighter. Inside the wing was the fighter's com system. He opened the panel, thought for a moment about what he wanted to say, and hit the 'start recording' button. "Hi Padme," he began. "I'm on Planet Docilium. Don't worry, I didn't run into any trouble," he laughed. She worried about those things too much. The fact that it was warranted with the amount of trouble he ran into on a weekly basis slipped past his mind. "I just looked at the house, and it's perfect. There's even a spare bedroom for you when you visit and we can turn it into the twins' room in a few months. Please tell me the soonest time you can visit," he added. "I miss you." He finished it off with his coordinates and how to find him, and terminated the message. Closing the panel, he headed back inside to finish unpacking.

After he was finished with the kitchen, he decided to take a break and check out the medical equipment in the bathroom. He rifled through a few cases of bandages and various over-the-counter medicines before he finally found something he could use. It was an internal scanner, usually used to check for bone fractures and the like. A person could get injured while sparring, and if there wasn't a medical bay on hand or a healer, you had to fix it yourself, hence the scanner. He looked at the tiny screen set into the handle. _I wonder if I could connect this to the ship's projection system,_ he wondered, turning the small device over in his hands. _Maybe I could record something and send it to Padme._ Relinquishing the device back to its box and protective packing, Anakin kept looking for the one thing he rather hoped he _didn't_ find; scalpels.

Now, Anakin knew the twins had to come out eventually and that the natural way was both impossible and not something he wanted to go through. Still, the idea of getting sliced open made his whole body tense. And it would be much worse if he had to do it to himself. _Stop that,_ he chided. _This is not like with women. I get to choose when it happens._ But all the same, he really hoped Padme was there to help when the time came.

When he didn't find anything in the medical supplies, well, besides a small scissors for bandages but there was _no way_ he was using those, he went back to unpacking. There was still the bedroom and bathroom to sort out, after all, along with a few things he'd snuck in for the twins. The bathroom and his bedroom were easy enough to sort out, with only his clothes and a few toiletries, but a small, anticipatory smile twitched his lips when he grabbed the last duffel and headed for the bigger bedroom.

Ignoring the large bed and most of the other furniture, Anakin opened the duffel and pulled out one of the sleepers Padme had slipped him before he left. It had a green lightsaber printed on the left side with the words "One Day…" printed in white on the garment's black fabric. His smile widened at the thought of perhaps teaching saber combat to one of the twins one day. It was highly unlikely, but a father could dream, right? He put the sleeper to the side and unpacked the other few clothes. He'd put the dresser later, but right now, it was late and he'd flown for hours to get here.

Time for Bed.

* * *

Padme finished scanning the messages from the Senate and pulled out the datapad she'd bought along with ten other, perfectly harmless titles last week. But the book of baby names was really the one she wanted. She turned the pad on and a screen popped up with a series of options.

· Names by First Letter

· Names by Meaning

· Names by Origin

· Names by Species

A chuckle escaped when she was the fourth option. Maybe she shouldn't have bought the deluxe version of the book, She clicked the last option and a list of species came onto the screen in alphabetical order. Quickly, she scrolled down and clicked the "Human" heading. The categories from the first screen appeared again, without the species option.

Padme sat back in her chair and tucked a hand under her chin. She needed two girl names and two boy names. And since she secretly wanted their names to be similar somehow, She'd have to find all four with something in common. Where should she start? Finally she decided to just pick a random page and start reading. So, Pame clicked on the "M" icon.

 **Hello everyone! In the process of moving into our new place right now, so it was a relief to ignore all the boxes and sit down to write this for you all. Enjoy!**

 **And also please review!**


	21. Enter Luke and Leia

She stepped off the transport, bidding goodbye to the crew behind her, and started walking down the path that led through the trees to the small house where Anakin was staying. _How is Ani,_ she wondered. It was getting close to the five month mark, and it had to be getting uncomfortable as the twins grew. For goodness sake, he wasn't even made for this! She walked up to the automated door and reached for the control panel when the door slid open and an arm reached out, pulled her through the door, and into a tight hug as it slid shut behind her.

"I'm so happy to see you, Padme," Anakin whispered as he smiled into her hair. "I missed you."

Padme felt the curve of their children press against her and she tilted her head up to ask how they were, but her husband kissed her before she could get the words out. She kissed him back, gripping his shoulders to return his hug. Finally, he stopped his attentions to her mouth and she asked, "How are you? And how are the babies?"

His smile broadened and something inside Padme loosened at that smile. "We're fine, all of us. In fact," he added, "We should be able to feel them moving on the outside soon." She tilted her head to one side, asking a silent question. "I've felt them for a while already," he admitted.

She released his shoulders and pressed a hand on the curve. "What did it feel like, that first time?"

"Like a bantha was tap dancing on my ribs." She frowned at his and he laughed, answering truthfully, "Like butterfly wings brushing my insides. Honestly, I thought it was just me at first, but it was them." He let go of her waist and led her deeper into the house. "Do you want something to drink?"

Padme watched as Anakin bustled around in the kitchen, getting breakfast ready. He pulled several different small bags of freeze-dried foods from the series of cupboards under the long counters, doused them in water, and slipped them in the rehydrator. When he got up from the floor with a pouch of something yellow, one of his hands brushed his stomach. He paused for a moment, and smiled, just a small one. Once the yellow powder was finished cooking and now resembled scrambled eggs, he reached for a small container of seasoning leaning against the wall. The curve of his abdomen nudged the countertop, and Padme watched as that small smile flitted over his face again. She looked away, suddenly feeling like an intruder. "So," she asked once they'd both sat down to eat. "Do we know what sex they are?"

Anakin shook his head. "I was waiting for you," he admitted. Actually, he could have found our weeks ago, but he wanted to share as much of as he could of this experience with her. "There's a small medical unit in the back for emergencies, and it had an ultrasound unit." Padme gave him a look and he wilted. "Okay, I took some of the other equipment and made it. I'll put it back like it was, I promise."

She smiled at his sheepishness and finished her mouthful of eggs. "I'd like to find out soon. I already have some ideas for names," she explained. "Have you thought of any yet?"

"Well, I don't want to name them after someone else, at least not for their first names," he answered, getting up to take his plate back to the kitchen. "They're their own people, they should get their own names."

Nodding, she added, "I think so, though that might be a good idea for middle names." She drank down the last of her hot tea and asked, "so when can I see them?"

Anakin drained his own cup and got up, grabbing her hand. "Let's go now." And they headed to the back of the small house. As he booted up his makeshift scanner, he asked, "So what ideas did you have for names?"

"I really like some of the names I found that start with L, so Luke and Leo for two boys, and maybe Leia and Lucy in case they're both girls." She looked at him expectantly. "What do you think?"

He ran a hand across his belly and stared unfocused at the ceiling for a moment. Then he nodded. "I like the idea of them sharing the first letter, but I'm not sure about Lucy. I like the other names, though. What do they mean?"

He started wiping some sort of goop onto his exposed bump as Padme answered. "Luke means giver of light and Leo means lion. Leia means child of heaven and Lucy just means light."

He paused, then grimaced. "I don't think we should name one Luke and the other Lucy, if we have a boy and a girl. They're too similar. We might get them mixed up. But come here." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to his side. Smiling, he handed her the scanner screen and started moving the wand along his belly. At first, al she could see was black, but then she saw a gray spot emerge, then a second.

Her breath caught and tears welled up in her eyes. "Is that them?" She almost whispered.

He kissed her cheek gently and said," yes. And look right here." He pointed to a spot on the first baby they'd seen. "I think she's a girl." He reached over and pulled Padme into a hug. "We're going to have a daughter!"

Padme smiled into the hug. "We're going to have a daughter," she repeated. Then her sense penetrated her euphoria. "Ani, the scanner!"

"Oh, right." They let go of each other and he picked up the wand again. A little sheepishly, he put it back on his bump and started moving it again. "There she is, yes, that's definitely her." He couldn't help smiling. "Now where's the other one? Here!" He paused and gestured for her to look again. "This is the other twin, right here." He outlined the shape with a finger. "And look at that!" He pointed to a spot low on the baby's body. "We're having a boy too! Padme, we're having a son!"

She couldn't stop smiling. "Luke and Leia. Our children."

"I like those names." This time, Anakin remembered to put the scanner to the side before he kissed her.

 **Can I get an Awwwwwwwww! please? Luke and Leia finally have names and everything! I can finally call them he and she! Really, it's a lot harder to write about a person without knowing the proper pronouns. What did you guys think? Personally, I thought it was adorable, but I'm a biased writer. Please review!**


	22. Moving Plots and Perspectives

Bant entered Yoda's meditation chamber, glancing around a bit. It was the first time she'd been in the Grand Master's rooms, and she was a little nervous. "Ah, glad I am that you have come," said the odd voice and Bant finally spotted Master Yoda sitting by one of the large windows.

She bowed and stepped forward. She said, "Thank you for inviting me, Master Yoda. How can I help?"

The old master quirked a clawed finer in a 'come here' gesture and she sat down in front of him. "Scan your Force Presence, I wish to, and then ask some questions I will. Alright, that is?" She nodded and Yoda went deep into the Force, reaching out toward Bant. What he found made the old master's heart sink. Bant's presence, which had always been lively and bright but soothing, was a dull, melancholy grey with strands of bright white and black. Yoda fingered one of the black strands and a painful grief shot through him. He pulled away, out of the meditation, but kept his eyes closed so he could think without interruption. _Expected this, I should have. A healer, Knight Bant is. Seen much death, she has, and friends she has lost._ And Bant was one of the healers who did not have an apprentice. Now, onto the questions. He opened his eyes and gave the Mon Calamari a baleful look. "Sense much sadness I do. Mourn, do you?"

She nodded. "When I was a field medic, a lot of clones and Jedi died before I could even start healing them, Master Yoda. I'd never seen so much death before."

The wrinkled old master nodded. "Dealt with this, you did?"

"When I returned to the Temple. I didn't have the time or energy for it out there." She repressed the urge to shudder at the memories.

"How dealt you, with those experiences?" he asked.

"I released the emotions into the Force, Master," she answered, as if that was obvious. It was how she'd been taught to deal with emotions, like all Jedi.

Yoda was beginning to think that simply releasing the negative emotions was not enough.

* * *

"I do hope you enjoyed your time on Docilium, Senator Padme." The young woman looked up and saw Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. "We missed your vibrant presence here on Corescant."

"Yes," she replied. "It was wonderful to get away from the city for a while."

He continued to smile at her, and she smiled back. "You miss Naboo, don't you," he asked, though it was more of a statement than a question. "Perhaps we should return there for a while after the war is over."

Nodding, she agreed. "I do miss my family, but I wouldn't want to return so soon. I would still be needed here, to rebuild after the conflict is over." She started walking towards the Senate Building's entrance and Palpatine kept pace with her.

It had been a long day of debate in the main chamber and she was ready to go back to her apartment, maybe to find a message from Ani waiting for her. He always sent one after she visited to see how she was, and it helped sustain her. But her happy thoughts of her husband were interrupted when Palpatine started talking again. "Still, you must miss the planet itself as well. Why else would you constantly go to Docilium? The jungles must remind you of the ones in soe parts of Naboo."

She carefully kept her tone even. "I like the privacy more than the scenery. It gives me a chance to clear my head and straighten things out. And it also reminds me why I'm fighting for peace, and sometimes I need that."

They were almost at the entrance now. Again, Palpatine spoke. "Perhaps I should accompany you sometime, if the planet is as tranquil as you say."

For some reason, that remark unsettled her. Why was the Supreme Chancellor so interested in her little retreat? _He is a friend, yes, but this is unwarranted._ Padme was thankful when she saw a speeder and her security crew waiting for her. "I'm afraid bringing a guest would defeat the purpose," she said with a laugh as she got into the speeder. Zooming away through traffic, she was unaware of the scowling Sith she left behind.

* * *

Anakin sat on the living room couch with a datapad on his knees. Jedi usually used mission-free time to study, and with all the packing, cleaning, and other necessities already finished, boredom had driven him to study. Besides, he'd need this skill if anyone other than Padme came to check on him. He certainly wouldn't put it past Obi-Wan to do just that.

"Sight Tricking" was the title of this particular text. Scowling, he flipped past the table of contents and started reading the introduction. This kind of mind trick, it seemed, involved placing a Force barrier around the object you wanted to hide or change. Then the Jedi creating the shield, him in this case, laced it liberally with a Force Suggestion telling anyone looking that they saw only what the jedi who made the shield wanted then to see. It wouldn't fool electronic devices, but the text claimed it could fool even the most sensitive Force user if done correctly. "This technique works best," the text claimed, "when the one being tricked has no reason to doubt what the shield suggests he or she sees."

Anakin mulled that over. _That means that if I wanted to hide my bump, the person I'm hiding it from can't suspect anything or it won't work as well._ That made sense. "Well," he mumbled to himself, "I might as well try." Flipping the page, he saw the title of the first chapter, Shield Building. "Already know how to do that." He turned more pages until he came to the next chapter's heading, Image Crafting. "This looks interesting." He read on.

 _Crafting the image is often the most difficult part of this kind of shielding. It has to balance doing what the Jedi doing the technique needs and avoiding suspicion. So choosing the exact image is often difficult._

"I already know what I want to use," the jedi muttered. Impatiently, he skimmed the page and the one after it. Finally, another paragraph caught his eye.

 _Once you've decided what general type of image to use, you need to make it as detailed and unobtrusive as possible. For example, if you are hiding a datapad, do not simply make it a blank datapad, but disguise it as a completely different text, usually one that the average person will find very dull and not worth further examination. If they take no increased interest in the object the jedi is trying to hide, the shield has a much better chance of succeeding._

 _However, the image should also be as detailed as possible. The more detailed and realistic the image is, the more likely it is to succeed in tricking a person, even when under closer scrutiny. Before going any further in this text, you should learn how to craft a convincing image._

"Alright." He nodded. Anakin headed for the refresher unit. He'd need the mirror in there and this would take some work. Suddenly, he stopped. _Was that…_ he thought before he pressed a hand to the right side of his bump. A jolt went through him as a tiny jab hit his palm. A smile broke out across his face and he pushed, just a bit, on the spot where one of the twins had kicked him. Gently this time, the little foot pressed into his hand. It stayed there for a few long seconds and Anakin's eyes closed in bliss. Finally, he could feel them on the outside. He couldn't wait to tell Padme.

 **Here you go! The twins are officially kicking now and Palpatine is soon to meet his end. A lot of people were asking me for details about how the war is going and the like, but I didn't write a lot of that for a reason. It's not the focus of this story. Anakin, Padme, and the twins are. Now, Anakin played a major role in the original story, so this is the story I imagine if he hadn't been there to drive certain events. For example, Palpatine was only kidnapped so Anakin would come after him and start the path to the Dark Side. Therefore, since Anakin has somehow moved out of his reach, he's not going to let himself get kidnapped. Instead, he's trying to get it out of Padme.**

 **Please Review!**


	23. Padme's Dilemma

Padme sank down into her favorite chair in the living room and slowly started to remove the multitude of pins holding her elaborate hairstyle in place. The senatorial robes were fine, really, but why did the dress code insist on these outrageous coiffures? She would have been much happier with a simple bun. She smiled as the gently eased out the tenth pin. That was something to teach her daughter; hair practicality.

Once her hair was free, she walked over to where her message pad was flashing. Good! It looked like Ani had called her back, and it was a holomessage instead of just an audio one. Discretely locking her door and tinting the windows, she clicked the 'view' button on the pad and a blue projection lit up the darkened living room.

Padme smiled at the contented grin and rather more convex stomach on her husband as he said, "Hi Padme. I got your message and I'm happy Obi-Wan caught General Greivous. And don't be so worried. If the Chancellor doesn't give back his emergency powers, I'm sure you'll make the Senate change their minds, and the Council can always help with that." His smile turned mischievous and she rolled her eyes fondly at his gentle poke at the Council. "I've been meditating more lately since," and his cheeks flushed, "I can't really practice my katas right now, and sitting still seems to calm the twins down. I think Leia likes kicking me when I move too much, although Luke's the real problem. For some reason he likes somersaults, and it kind of makes me nauseas when he does that." He looked down at his feet, pressed a hand to the now quite sizable bump, and smiled, still blushing. "Anyway, about two days ago…" He looked back up with the same smile he'd had when she first told him about the twins. "I think I felt Luke." She gasped. "Padme, I think he's Force sensitive. I don't know about Leia, not yet, but I definitely felt Luke." She watched as a hand nervously ran over his expanded middle. "Do you think that maybe, once the twins are born, I could bring Luke to the Temple? The Jedi takes infants sometimes, especially orphans. I could say his parents fought in the war or something. They would even let me train him, and-"

Padme shut off the message and fell back into her chair as the automatic lighting came on. She'd actually gotten the chair because Anakin had said it was like the ones the Jedi Council used. _Would my son sit in one of those chairs someday?_ But that might mean giving up all contact with him, or at least a good bit of it. And if Luke was Force sensitive and Leia was not, would they have to separate the twins? She would take the girl and Ani the boy? She hated the very idea.

Growing up as an only child, Padme had always wanted siblings. Anakin had too. They'd both been so happy when they'd found out they were having twins, and now they might have to separate them. Padme remembered Anakin's smiling face in the message and wanted to cry. How could he be so happy about something that would take at least one of her children away from her?

 _But if they stayed together, Ani wouldn't be able to see them. He and I could barely stay in contact,_ she thought. Some of it was due to the war, she knew, but it had been worse before that. They'd gone for years without contact. If Luke did go into the Jedi Order, he could at least see his father around, and even more if he was apprenticed to Ani. _And I'd have Leia,_ Padme admonished herself. _Maybe I could retire from the Senate and go live somewhere where Ani and Luke could visit without it looking too suspicious._ It would be just like now, only with her in Anakin's place and with the twins. _I suppose I'll take what I can get._ She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.


	24. A Visit from a Friend

The Living Force outside hummed softly as things settled down for the night and the cool air from the oncoming dusk drifted through the living room's open windows. Anakin tried to meditate, the key word being "tried". Luke had decided to start his combat training early and seemed to think his bladder made a good opponent. And it didn't help that Leia had woken up and started somersaulting. The sensation had made him throw up once already.

Luke delivered another hard kick and the Jedi finally gave up, heading for the bathroom to empty his bladder and hopefully give his son a smaller target. A few minutes later, with his bladder now empty and Luke now kicking his ribs instead, Anakin had just sat back down for another try at meditating when a familiar Force presence tickled the edge of his awareness, and he took a moment to focus on it and discern who it was.

Anakin froze.

Obi-Wan was walking down the path to his house.

The knight bolted back onto his feet and had to steady himself with the Force for a moment as because having the twins inside him sometimes hampered his blood flow, but he couldn't think about that right now! Obi-Wan was almost here!

 _Okay, calm down,_ he told himself. _I knew this might happen. So first things first. Hide the physical evidence._ He erected one of his sight tricking shields around his very visibly bulging middle, laced heavily with the Force illusion of his jedi robes draped over a flat, toned stomach. Then, with a deep breath, he reached inward, grabbed his Force presence and wrapped it tightly around Luke's and Leia's. _I did this before with Padme, and she couldn't see a thing._

 _But she's not a Master,_ another, more strongly panicking part of him said.

 _It doesn't matter, I've practiced since then. He won't get past the shields._ He released his fear into the Force, checked the shields one last time, and opened the door.

Obi-Wan smiled at him. "Hello, Anakin, you seem to be doing well." His eyes ran over the younger man who _prayed_ the shields would hold. "I see you've kept up your training."

Quietly, Anakin released his relief into the Force and grinned back. "Thank you Master, it's good to see you too." And it was, despite his earlier panic.

"I'm not your master anymore, Ani, you don't have to call me that." He gestured at the door with his small suitcase. "May I come in?"

The pregnant Knight stepped back and away from the door in silent invitation and Obi-Wan followed him into the house.

* * *

Obi-Wan smiled at Anakin's retreating back. He'd been a bit worried when Anakin had decided to go on Sabbatical. He'd worried the war was getting to the young man. _Well, it looks like this helped a great deal,_ he thought to himself. A quick examination of the younger's Force presence before he opened the door had shown nervousness, probably about his surprise visit, but the edge of frustration and discontent so long apparent in his Force presence had changed. There was a strain of deep love threaded through Anakin's consciousness, though Obi-Wan couldn't quite tell what it was directed toward. _Well, I suppose I'll just have to ask,_ he thought. _Oh, I hope he hasn't become attached to someone._

The younger seated his old master in the living room and Obi-Wan took a moment to admire the darkening view through the windows. "Do you want something to drink or eat," Anakin asked. "I doubt you had anything while you were flying." He laughed in an effort to ease his nerves.

"No, I'm fine, thank you," the other Jedi answered. "Actually, would you mind if we talked tomorrow? It was a long flight here and I am rather tired."

Anakin laughed again, and this time it was more genuine. "I'm surprised you made it. You probably white-knuckled it the whole flight. There's a guest room right over here." He opened the door a crack and scanned the room for any visible baby items. But there seemed to be none, so he opened the door wider and Obi-Wan walked in with his small bag. "I'll see you in the morning, Obi-Wan." Then he quickly shut the door and breathed in deeply. He'd dodged the first bullet, now he just had to last until Obi-Wan left.

When Obi-Wan woke the next morning, he stretched out with his limbs and his senses, letting the Living Force from the jungle outside saturate his soul while his muscles stretched and eased. This was the best he had felt in a long time. The sounds of cupboards opening and shutting, followed by running water, told the jedi master that Anakin had started making breakfast. _I could get used to his,_ he thought and then realized that it was true. The war with all its accompanying urgency and stress was over. Now, he could enjoy waking up from a full night's sleep instead of being jolted awake from a quick catnap between battles. Relishing that thought, Obi-Wan grabbed a change of clothes and went in search of a 'fresher' unit to get ready for the day.

"Good morning," Obi-Wan said as he walked into the kitchen, hair still slightly damp.

Anakin jumped slightly at the greeting. "Good morning," he replied, throwing a shield around his middle. Thank goodness he'd been facing away from the door when his old master came in.

Obi-Wan smiled contentedly. "No need to be so startled, Anakin. I suppose it's different having someone else here after being alone for so long," he conceded as he walked into the main cooking area beside the younger man. Noticing the pan of eggs Ani had on the stove, he reached for the spatula in front of the younger man. His arm brushed something and he looked down. Nothing was there. Puzzled, he looked a little closer.

The hastily erected illusion collapsed and Obi-Wan got a very good look at his seven-month pregnant best friend.

 **Gasp! Obi-Wan knows! I know I had a rather large time skip in this chapter, but come on! I want to see the twins already! Besides, I have other things I want to start working on but I also hate to leave a story unfinished. Speaking of stories, I wrote a little piece called "But" if anyone cares to give it a read.**

 **Please Review!**


	25. Oh No

"Anakin, What-" Obi-Wan stammered, but he didn't get to finish. With a strong Force push, Anakin sent the other man flying down the hall and into the small bedroom. Then he locked the door and windows and ran out the front door. He careened down the path, almost slamming into the ship at the end of it, Obi-Wan's fighter. Quickly, Anakin disabled several different systems he remembered Obi-Wan complaining he could never fix, including the com unit. Then he ran through the woods again, past the house and into the backyard.

After he disabled his fighter as well, he turned on the still-functioning com system. He punched the 'start recording' button and stammered out, "Padma, Obi-Wan found out. I'll try to keep him here, but you have to help me. He'll never listen to me, but he'll listen to you. Please, get here as soon as you"

The back door banged open behind him and Obi-Wan stormed out onto the small field. Anakin quickly sent off the message and managed to unplug the system from its power source before a hand gripped his shoulder and roughly spun him around. The master almost glowered at him. "Anakin,"

"Master, I can explain."

"Start with that," the older man demanded as he jabbed a finger at Anakin's distended middle.

He knocked the hand away and glowered back at his master. Then he sighed and his shoulders sagged slightly. "Can we talk about this back inside," the knight asked tiredly.

Obi-Wan studied him for a moment, very much suspicious. Was Anakin trying to get him back in the house so he could be contained? He glanced at the com unit. "Who were you talking to?" Was it one of the Separatists? But that didn't explain the disturbing swelling in Anakin's body. Maybe the younger man was ill, had caught some sort of disease or parasite. Yes, that made more sense. Obi-Wan decided to test that theory. With the other still silent, Obi-Wan reached out into the Force around him, quickly honing in on Anakin's Force presence. There was no sign of sickness, none of the corruption that should have permeated the energy around his old padawan. But wait, there was something different. The energy all life generated was thick around his stomach area, thicker than it should have been. He poked at that area, not noticing how Anakin flinched from his Force-connected state.

Then, like two bright stars dimmed by the light of a brilliant full moon, Obi-Wan saw them. Two Force presences, one much stronger that the other, brushed up against his probing mind. He reeled back, out of his searching state and grabbed his old padawan. "We have to get you to a med center, Ani. There's something inside you!"

"I know," Anakin cut in. "I'll explain, I will, but first, let's go back inside."

Very confused and still suspicious, Obi-Wan followed him back inside. In the kitchen, Anakin sat in one of the dining table chairs and Obi-Wan took a seat across from him. "Well," he tried not to growl out.

Anakin folded his hands over his middle and asked, "Do you remember Senator Padme?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan admitted, "but what does she have to do with this?"

The younger man sighed. "Master, I'm trying to tell you. Would you just listen?" Obi-Wan huffed but didn't speak, not even to correct Anakin about calling him master. "Well, I fell in love with her. We got married right after the Clone War started." Obi-Wan opened his mouth to ask how Anakin could be so foolish but a glare shut him up. "About six months ago, when I came back from another mission, she came to meet me at the landing pad because she had something to tell me." He took a deep breath and took the plunge. "She was pregnant."

He'd been watching his old master's face, so he knew the moment Obi-Wan put two and two together. A slight widening of the eyes, and then they locked onto his stomach where his hands rested protectively. He continued on. "I had a vision, over and over, of Padme dying in childbirth. The twins never made it. I couldn't let that happen, so I moved them inside me instead." He looked up at the other Jedi, whose eyes had moved from his abdomen to his face. "They'll be here in about two months."

Obi-Wan fell back in his chair, suddenly ten years older. "Anakin, how could you be so foolish? Do you know how much of the code you've broken?" He got up and started pacing.

The younger Jedi watched him with a measure of incredulity. "So you believe me?"

He ran a hand through his hair and looked back at Anakin. "I felt two new presences inside you. And," a small unconscious smile lifted his lips, entirely unexpected, "it does explain a few things I noticed before you went on Sabbatical." Then the smile vanished as Obi-Wan looked away from him. "How could you do something so dangerous?"

The knight started a bit. Dangerous? "There's nothing dangerous about this."

He found down the urge to shout at his former apprentice and said, "Anakin, you are a male, your body is not equipped to carry children."

The other man nodded, even though Obi-Wan couldn't see it. "I knew that. That's why I did research, about the Hippocampini Race, the human body and about artificial wombs. I even went to Kamino to study theirs and learned healing so I could keep an eye on myself. I knew what I was doing, master. I made sure it was safe."

Something in that statement grabbed Obi-Wans' attention. "You were on Kamino? Were you the one who found out about the chip?" He turned around in time to see Anakin's nod of confirmation. Thinking hard, he went over the report again in his mind. To him, it had seemed curious, bordering on suspicious. If Anakin had written it, that did make more sense. He sat back down at the table, avoiding looked at his old apprentice. "Anakin, I have to report this to the Council."

Anakin lurched back. "No!"

"You're turning, Anakin, you just can't see it." Obi-Wan rubbed at his forehead. "Our whole purpose is to maintain balance. What you're doing goes against that balance in so many ways."

"But Jedi also respect life," Anakin argued before the other could continue. "Our purpose is to save lives, wherever we can. That's all I'm doing."

"No, you're letting your emotions, your love for them affect your decisions."

"Love is not an emotion!" Anakin shouted at his old master, leaping to his feet. Dizziness fogged up his senses and he gripped the edge of the table to steady himself. Obi-Wan noticed and got up as well. He walked around the table and put a hand on the younger man's back. But Anakin let go of the table and stared into his face. "Love is a choice someone makes every day, to put someone else before themselves." He splayed a hand over his middle. "I love my children, and if this is what I have to do to keep them safe, I will." Luke kicked him in the side. Anakin flinched, but smiled as he pressed a hand to the place Luke had kicked. He suddenly realized how tired he was. "Look, can we talk about this later?"

Obi-Wan saw the exhausted slouch to his old padawan's shoulders and relented. "I won't tell the Council yet, Ani, but you have a great deal to explain, understand?" He watched until Anakin gave him a nod. Then the young man retreated towards the living room.

Obi-Wan stared at the younger man's retreating back. Now that he knew about Anakin's…pregnancy, and didn't that sound strange, he could see bits of it here and there, like the way his back arched a bit more than normal. _I suppose his center of gravity's off,_ he thought. _But he's certainly adapting well to the whole thing._ Obi-Wan thought about what that might mean, and decided to look a bit deeper once he was alone.

Obi-Wan went back into the guest room, carefully not locking the door and unlocking the window, and sat on the bed. He folded his legs under him and meditated on his surrounding until he entered a state where he could feel the Force intimately. It pulsed within him in time with his heartbeat, and he gloried in the feeling, letting it soothe his consciousness. But eventually, he moved his attention outward.

The jungle around the house teemed with the Living Force, varied and powerful, wild and beautiful. It tugged at his fringes, asking him to come and play with it, dance with it, wrestle with it. _Maybe I will,_ he thought, delighted by its sheer richness, _after I've dealt with Anakin._ Slowly, he narrowed the field of sensation to the interior of the house, where the most abundant source of life energy was Anakin and the children latching onto him.

With far more reluctance than his brief excursion into the jungle's Living Force, he reached for his old apprentice. Obi-Wan knew Anakin's Force presence very well, powerful, but minutely touched with strands of darkness. More Jedi than the Order would care to admit had a strain of it running through them, especially among the older ranks. After all, one couldn't fight a war without casualties. The difference with Anakin, was that his had been there for a very long time, perhaps even before he left Tatooine. That was what made the Council hesitant about him in the first place. That streak of darkness was what Obi-Wan was looking for now.

 _His Force presence is bigger than the last time I did this,_ he thought as he closed in of the small sun that was Anakin. _Of course, there are three there now._ He ran his senses over the life energy, testing its attributes. _There's the love I sensed earlier, and tiredness. Well, I expected that._ A small strand of dark caught his attention and he grabbed onto it. Fear, very clear and pure, swept through Obi-Wan. _But fear of what, exactly?_ He studied the strand more closely and noticed it was bundled with two others, one blazing brightly, the other more subdued. He reached for the duller one first.

Protectiveness, hot and determined, almost made Obi-Wan release the strand. He checked for malice, or anger, but there was none. _I think I know what the last strand is going to be,_ he thought, but he released the protective streak and closed his senses around the final thread.

Love, unconditional and powerful, swept through him again, a thousand times greater that the fear. Quickly, he let go of the strand, and in doing so noticed something he'd missed previously. The bundle wasn't three individual strands. The fear and protectiveness were like fibers that had frayed slightly from the cord of love. _My arrival brought them to the foreground,_ he realized. _But Ani didn't act on them as far as I can tell._ That surprised him a little. The Anakin he knew jumped into action, usually without thinking. But all throughout this process, he'd thought out every step carefully before acting on it.

He drew back into his own mind and out of the deep meditation. He unfolded his legs and let himself fall back against the mattress. He and Anakin were in no immediate danger so Obi-Wan had time to rest. He'd look at it again with a fresher mind in a few hours.

 **Sorry I didn't get this out at my usual time. I have family visiting, and we went out for the day. Please Review!**


	26. Persuasions

Padme waited anxiously at the hatchway of her small ship. _It's a good thing Jedi fighters are small, or we wouldn't have room to land,_ she thought. Still, the way it was almost pushed into the bushes in an attempt to make room spoke of Anakin. _I hope he didn't just push the whole thing,_ Padme worried. _He could hurt himself at this point, especially with what's happened._ The extra stress of Obi-Wan finding out wouldn't help Anakin's health or the twins.

As soon as the pilot announced a safe touchdown, Padme slammed the button that sent the gangway down and raced off it before it even touched the grass. She waved to the cockpit and the ship took off toward one of the more populated areas on the planet, where it would stay until the senator commed them and said to come pick her up. Quickly, she ran down the path and the front door opened to meet her with a very anxious and very pregnant Anakin waiting in the doorway. She slowed just enough to keep from slamming into him and hugged him. It was a bit more awkward than before, since she had to bend over the large bump that was the twins and hug him around the shoulders, but the warm arms around her own shoulders were still comforting.

She felt his tense muscles relax, and realized just how worried he was about all of this. "Hey," she comforted, touching his cheek with her hand, "we'll be fine. I'll talk to him."

Anakin nodded and grasped the hand resting on his cheek. "He's in the twins' room," He informed her as he tugged her inside. They stopped before the closed door and Padme felt her husband tense next to her.

Smiling, she ran her thumb over his knuckles and suggested, "Why don't you wait for us in the living room? You can practice meditating." _And calm down so you don't hurt yourself or the twins,_ she didn't say, but Anakin heard it anyway. He smiled, still nervous but a bit sheepish, and walked back down the hall. Padme took a deep breath to brace herself, and opened the door. Obi-Wan was sitting in front of one of the windows in a pose Padme knew from experience with her husband meant he was meditating. She also knew it was rude to wake a Jedi from that state. So she sat down on the bed, trying to think of something to say that would make the Jedi more sympathetic towards her family.

She didn't have long to wait. Relaxing his posture and opening his eyes, Obi-Wan slid out of meditation and frowned slightly when he saw her. "Padme," he greeted, nodding in her direction. She almost flinched at the rather cold greeting. Usually she would have hugged Anakin's old master. Now she just nodded and got up to sit in front of him.

"What did Anakin already tell you?" she asked.

Obi-Wan studied her and it made Padme want to bolt. What was he looking for? "Why did Anakin fall in love with you?" She flinched. She could hear the real question there. _Why did Anakin break the Code for you?_

But Ani had told her why, a few nights into their marriage, before the real world crashed back in. "Do you know when I started falling in love with you?" He had asked.

She'd laid her head on his shoulder and guessed, "Was it when you asked me if I was an angel?"

Vibrations rumbled through her head as the shoulder it rested on gently shook with laughter. "No, it was the first night on the ship. I'd just said goodbye to my mother, and you comforted me." He kissed the top of her head and rested his cheek against it.

Padme pulled her mind out of her memories and faced the slightly accusatory stare of the Jedi Master. "Because when he needed someone to love him, I did." When the glare didn't lessen, she continued. "Both of us fought against our desires for a long time, for years."

"Then why didn't you just keep fighting?" Obi-Wan scowled at her, getting to his feet and walking away. "You could have resisted," he finished.

But Padme wasn't just going to let him go. Anakin needed her to convince him and, she realized she wanted to. Obi-Wan was belittling what she had with Anakin and what they'd gone through to get there. "It was war," she said, louder this time," and we knew both of us could die, almost any day. We didn't want to have regrets." But Obi-Wan was still scowling. "There was enough death and pain in the world already, we just wanted some happiness, we never…" She broke off and rubbed at her eyes. She hated thinking about that time. "We never thought it would lead to children."

"But how could you let him do this?" the Jedi asked, and Padme noticed that he wasn't scowling anymore. "Senator, you had to know this was wrong."

"By what standard?" she countered. "The Jedi Code? Because Anakin has used the Force every step of the way and no one ever saw him going dark. Actually, I think this stopped him from turning."

Obi-Wan scoffed. "Senator, you don't understand the Force."

"But I understand Anakin," she interrupted, silencing the man. "Before he got the idea to transfer them to himself, I was worried. He was so angry, Obi-Wan, at everything." Memories flooded in, of when he came back from a mission furious with the world. There were times she thought he would just up and abandon everything, take her to a planet where no one would find them, and shut the rest of the galaxy out. She buried her face in her hands and her next words came out muffled. "And then, after he stated having those dreams, I didn't know what to do," she admitted. "Then something seemed to change in him." A hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up into Obi-Wan's face, once again warm. "The helplessness drained away and he didn't seem so angry anymore."

"Was that while he was researching?" he asked.

Padme nodded. " And then, after the transfer, he…" A smile, so bright it startled Obi-Wan, broke across her face like dawn." Obi-Wan, I'd never seen him so happy, not even on the day we were married. Even with all the new things we had to worry about, he was always happy in one way or another. You must have noticed it before he left and came here." The pensive look on his face relaxed her slightly. So he had noticed.

"But he still broke the Code," Obi-Wan persisted.

"Then maybe the Code needs to change," she said, and went back into the living room with Anakin. There was nothing more she could say.

 **Well, I've had a whirlwind of a week since I posted last. My family visited and dragged me all over San Diego. I went to more places in that one week than I have in the whole month since I moved here! Still, it was a lot of fun. Please Review!**


	27. The Twins Get an Uncle

Mace startled awake, and already had his lightsaber in hand before he remembered that he was safe in the Temple. Quickly, he scanned the room for any fluctuations in the Force that signaled another's presence. But he was alone. He relaxed his defensive stance and then cursed quietly. It would be a very long time before the instincts from the war went away, or the nightmares. Thankfully, Mace had the Force to help him.

Still, something had woken him. He glanced around the room to see if anything had fallen, and saw that his message pad was flashing. The beep signaling the new message was probably what had woken him. Mace walked over and checked the message ID. _Obi-Wan,_ he thought. _I thought he was just checking on Anakin. Is something wrong?_ It was an audio-only message, so he hit the start button and Obi-Wan's voice, sounding slightly mechanical due to the message, filled the room. "Hello Mace. I'm visiting Anakin right now and he's asked me to stay for a while to help with his physical training. I've applied for leave with the rest of the Council, but I wanted to tell you myself." There was a pause, and then Obi-Wan continued. "Honestly, I need the time away after the war." There was a chuckle. "I may go on Sabbatical myself soon. I hope to hear from you soon." Then the message ended and Mace smiled. Obi-Wan did need the break. _Actually, everyone does,_ he realized. _Perhaps the Order should stop taking missions for a while and let everyone rest and recuperate._ He'd have to bring up the idea with Yoda later, to see how they might manage it.

* * *

Padme tried to keep Anakin calm, but she didn't have an easy time of it. His hands and arm kept tensing up, but then relaxing again when she squeezed his hand, brushed his leg with hers, generally just letting him know she was there. But she was worried too. While Anakin wanted to do something, launch into action, her mind kept racing. What if Obi-Wan turned them in? What if even their combined efforts weren't enough? Maybe she _should_ let Anakin go. If he flew away right now, the children would be safe and she could always join them later. It was better than him being expelled or even arrested for this. They could go back to Naboo, to the lake country. Some areas there were very isolated. They could pick a spot by the water, maybe fix up the nursery in a room with a good view.

Her daydreaming calm bled outwards and eased Anakin's anxiety. He looked at her and noticed her closed eyes. "What are you thinking about?"

Obi-Wan stepped out of his room and voices drifted down the hall to him. "I was thinking about having the babies back on Naboo." It was Padme speaking. "We could live at Varykino. It's a very private spot and my family doesn't use it anymore." He walked down the hall and looked in on them from the doorway. Ani and Padme had their hands curled together, sitting close enough that their sides pressed up against each other.

Anakin was next to speak. "We could paint their room however we wanted. One half pink, one half blue maybe?" He smiled mischievously and she sighed, but it wasn't weary. "We'd be so well hidden, no one could find us." Raising their joined hands, he rested them on his swollen middle. "Maybe we could get a boat and take them out on the water sometime."

"As nice as that sounds, it's not necessary." The couple looked up at the sound of Obi-Wan's voice and saw him standing in the door. "I won't tell the Council." Suddenly, he had two slim arms wrapped around him and Padme's hair in his face. He smiled and hugged her back as she whisper thank-yous into his shirt.

Then there was a loud creak from the couch as Ani got up and walked toward the two of them. Hesitant, he stopped a few feet away. With a smile still on her face, Padme let go and backed up a few steps to watch how this played out. Anakin shifted his feet, looked down, and asked, "why?"

"Because I have never seen you this happy and I don't want to take that away from you." Yes, there might be other reasons, like the fact that they probably wouldn't let him leave until he agreed, but that was the main one. And then he was in a hug again.

 **I know it's shorter than usual, but next chapter will make up for it, I promise. Please Review!**


	28. It's Time

Anakin slipped out of sleep and groaned. The pillow supporting his enormous baby bump had slipped sometime during the night and he could already feel the resulting backache. Reaching through the Force to ease the cramped and pulled muscles was a very tempting prospect, but Obi-Wan would definitely chew him out later if he caught Anakin doing that. And he always did. "You decided to do this, Anakin," his old master had lectured him repeatedly. "Relaxing your body with the Force makes it weak and dependent. You can't risk that happening just to ease your discomfort."

 _Easy for him to say,_ Anakin grumbled. _He's not the one who's carried you two for almost seven months._ Laboriously, the jedi hauled himself to his feet and waddled to the bathroom. It was only through an unwillingness to give Obi-Wan more ammunition against him that Anakin had kept the change in his gait secret from the old master. With a quick splash of water on his face, the almost-father woke up fully. He stripped off his shirt and picked up his small homemade ultrasound machine. After he'd hit the eight month mark, Anakin had started checking every morning to see how the twins were. He smiled as he got a look at them this morning. It seemed one of the babies wanted all the attention, right at the front with the other baby almost hidden behind the first. But as far as he could tell, both of them were lying with their fronts turned away from him and their heads in his pelvis area. _That's the perfect position for getting them out,_ he realized.

He sat back against the tub. If Padme had estimated the correct date of conception, he'd passed the nine month mark last week. At this point, the twins were late. Obi-Wan had told the Council he was just stopping by to check on Anakin and helping him learn a tricky mental technique, but that excuse was wearing thin, especially as Obi-Wan stayed longer and longer. And Anakin had been getting more and more backaches. They couldn't all be caused by pillows. His body was getting tired of the extra weight. He grabbed the rim of the sink, hoisted himself up off the floor and walked down the empty hall to the kitchen to start breakfast.

Once Obi-Wan and Padme had made their way sleepily to the kitchen and had their fill of waffles, coffee, and eggs, Anakin spoke up. "I think we should get them out today." They both put down their forks and gave him their undivided attention. "They're ready. And Obi-Wan should go back to the Temple soon, so we should do it while he's still here to help."

"Ani," Padme said, a slight tremor running through her voice," we're not ready."

"Then when will we be?" the knight argued. "The room is ready for them, we have what we need for the surgery, they're finished growing. You said so yourself when we checked yesterday." Gently, he reached across the counter and took her hand. "It's time."

She pulled away. "No, not yet." Then she got up and walked out the backdoor.

Anakin started to follow, but Obi-Wan put a hand on his shoulder. "I will go talk to her," he offered. "You should go relax. If we do this today, you have to be strong, not tired. And I don't think you got much sleep last night." In all truth, he hadn't, so with a nod, the younger Jedi turned back to his food and Obi-Wan followed the Senator outside. Sitting in the grass, Padme had her legs pulled up and her arms wrapped around one knee. "Do you mind if I join you?" Obi-Wan asked. They sat in silence for a while, looking at the jungle-rimmed backyard and the small Starfighter parked to one side, Anakin's.

Then Obi-Wan gently broke the silence. "What is wrong?"

Without turning to look at him, Padme answered. "I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

Her hand gripped her knees tighter. "We'll have to hurt him to get the twins out. When I found out what he planned, I researched it and there's just so much that could go wrong." Her voice broke and she looked down. "What is one of us makes a mistake? Ani's going to be in so much pain. How will he heal himself when he's like that? I can't put him through that. There has to be another way. We can get more painkillers or…" She tapered off and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "We're just not ready."

 _She's terrified,_ Obi-Wan realized. He put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him, letting her emotions out in quiet tears. Now the old master was very happy he hadn't let Anakin come out here. Once he saw Padme's distress, the young fater would have called the whole thing off. And that would not have been wise. "Padme," he began, "Anakin has been wounded before, and he handled it without painkillers or outside help. Healing himself will be easy."

"But what about the twins?" She looked up and asked, "What if something goes wrong?"

He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "That's why you and I are here."

"But still-"

"Padme," he cut her off. "There were always risks you and Anakin knew that. And there will be more if we wait. Anakin's right, we need to do this today." He looked her in the eyes and did not let her avoid his gaze. "Will you come inside and help us get ready?"

With a deep breath, she nodded slowly and the pair rose to their feet. "I'll go help Anakin," she almost whispered, ashamed of her fear. "Can you start getting the kitchen ready?"

"Yes," he answered firmly. "But Padme," he said and she looked back at him. "Your fear is not a weakness. It is a sign that you love Anakin and the children. You just can't let it control your actions."

She looked down at the floor and then up at him with a quirk in her smile. "When did you learn so much about love?"

"Watching you two has been quite the education." That made her smile and they went back inside together.

 **This and the next chapter were almost one chapter, but the part with Padme got away from me so I had to split them up. But next week is the big day! Hey, I'll make you guys a deal. If I can get ten reviews on this chapter, I'll post the next one early!**


	29. Finally Meeting the Twins

**Warning: rather graphic birth scene.**

Padme walked down the hall and Obi-Wan started opening up drawers in the kitchen, taking out everything they would need. A small, sharp knife, a plastic tablecloth, a lot of dishrags, tongs, and some binder clips were placed on the counter top. He raided the guestroom, soon to be nursery for blankets, soft towels, an infant bathtub, and clothes for the two babies. The jedi-themed cloths made him grin. With one more trip to the bathroom for rubbing alcohol for sterilizing and Anakin's homemade scanner, he walked back to the kitchen with the bundle of items. The couple must have passed him while he was in one of the rooms, because they were already busily setting up. Anakin was wearing only a pair of pants slung low on his hips and a very excited expression. He made sure the tablecloth was straight while Padme, more nervous and in a white surgeon's gown, made sure all the tools were within easy reach. One of the stools doubled as her table and after Obi-Wan dumped most of his pile on the counter, he handed her the medical tools. Anakin finished with the tablecloth and eagerly started laying out the clothes and blankets for the twins. The master nudged Padme's shoulder and nodded towards Anakin. _Look how happy he is,_ he seemed to say. _He's ready._

She looked at her grinning husband, at the taut skin that sheltered her two babies, and a small knot of excitement uncurled in her chest. A few minutes of pain and then she would get to meet them for the first time! _I wonder if this is how new fathers feel._ She finished laying out the tools and told Ani to lie down so she could put in the IV. Getting that from Naboo had not been easy but she was glad she had. Deftly hooking him up, Padme said to Obi-Wan, "Can you fill the bath with warm water?"

"Of course," he replied and grabbed the small tub. "Anakin, did you wash up?"

"Yes," he said, "Though we should probably clean the knife."

In answer Obi-Wan poured the rubbing alcohol in to the clean cup, dipped the knife in it, and removed the excess liquid with a flick of his wrist. They both snapped on latex gloves and then he handed the knife to Padme. "Are you sure we can't give you something for the pain," she asked.

Anakin nodded "I need to be fully aware. Besides, I can put most of it into the Force." She smiled somewhat shakily and marked out the two cuts on his belly with a pencil. Then she picked up the knife and almost dropped it.

Obi-Wan came up behind her and gently took the knife. "I'll do it, Padme. Anakin, can you check their position for me?" The younger man nodded and his face went slack as he sank into the Force. While Anakin checked, Obi-Wan asked Padme, "Once I pull the first one out, can you hand me two binder clips?" She nodded, calmer now that she wasn't the one putting their hands inside her husband.

Anakin woke up from his trance. Both stopped what they were doing to listen. "They're both lying head first, facedown. One is on top of the other, so you'll have to get that baby out first. Tell me when they're both breathing so I can detach the placentas."

Obi-Wan rested the knife blade on Anakin's skin at the top of the first cut just under his naval. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." He began to make the incision.

Pain, hot and sharp, followed the blade. But Anakin had had worse, much worse. He held himself still and drained the cutting pain into the Force. Quickly he delved deep into his body and worked to halt the bleeding. Slowing his heart rate, he almost jolted back to awareness when the second across the underside of the massive bump joined the first. Still, he drained the pain into the Force and kept his body in check. It would be over soon, and when it was, he would have two beautiful children. He just had to hold on.

Obi-Wan's steady hands finished the second cut and the blood flow slowed dramatically. _He's doing a good job,_ the older man marveled. He breathed deeply and gently folded the corners of skin and muscle back. It wasn't a pretty sight. Blood and other fluids mixed into something slimy, coating every surface and pooling in some places, but Obi-Wan did see the large lump he was looking for. As quickly and gently as the jedi could manage, Obi-Wan slipped his gloved hand down the back of the small head, continuing past the neck and shoulders until he felt the child's rump. He ignored the fact that he was up to his forearms in his apprentice and gently drew the child out, mercifully without the baby's limbs snagging on the womb or the other twin. "Clips," he orders. Padme came forward with them. "Put them on the cord and snip between them." She knew this, of course, but it never hurt to remind her. Quickly she did so and Obi-Wan handed her the precious little life. Then he plunged his hand in again for the second child.

The baby wasn't on the surface this time and Obi-Wan felt his heart clench every time he brushed against the womb as he searched. Finally, he felt the curve of a tiny head and followed the curve until he found the baby's bottom and ever so gently pulled the child out. Padme was still busy with the first baby so he tucked the infant against his chest and took care of the cord himself with the other hand. "Padme, can you take this one," he almost shouted. Quickly, she bustled over and nestled the baby in her own arms. Obi-Wan turned back to Anakin. "They're both out," he said and gave the two cords and attached placentas a tug.

They wouldn't come out.

Obi-Wan was suddenly aware of how much blood there was. On his hands, the babies, the table, blood was everywhere and Anakin wasn't responding. _Oh Force, what have I done?_ Frantically, he reached out and felt for a pulse. It was slow, but steady. But slow was okay, because Anakin was slowing it. Wait. Anakin was in the Force, that's why he didn't hear Obi-Wan! With relief that his friend was still somewhat alright, the master stretched out with his feelings and thought, _both babies are out. You need to detach the placentas._ An affirmative drifted through the Force and Obi-Wan retreated back to the physical world. With another tug on the cords, both fleshy masses slipped out of Anakin and he dropped them in a waiting trash bin.

"I'm finished with the twins," Padme called.

"Good, come here and help me sew him up," Obi-Wan ordered. Padme was at his side in a moment but didn't immediately reach out.

"Is he alright," she asked, her voice slightly shaky.

Obi-Wan looked at the young man again and smiled. "He's already healing himself. Now hand me that needle."

 **Wow, you guys almost met my challenge! I'm so proud of you all, and so happy to get all those comments. Thank you all so much! Well, here's the big moment, though I hope it didn't make anyone too squeamish. Please review!**

 **By the way, please check out my profile page and take a look at the various stories I've turned into audiobooks, some of which are Star Wars stories. I hope you enjoy!**


	30. Luke and Leia

When Anakin finally came back to the physical, there was a throbbing in his lower belly and he felt a bit unsteady. "Padme," he asked and then she was next to him with something wrapped in a blanket.

There was a huge smile on her face as she sat on one of the kitchen chairs next to him and lowered the bundle. "This is our little boy, Ani," she whispered in delight. With a weak hand, he reached out and tugged down one end of the blanket.

His son's skin was red and a bit blotchy, but his hair was clean, soft, and the exact same shade of blond Anakin had when he was younger. Tiny little eyes were closed, so he couldn't see their color. He ran a finger across the baby's smooth cheek. This was his son. _His son!_ A smile broke across his face. He looked up at Padme. "This is Luke, then."

Then someone cleared their throat. Anakin looked over at the other side of the bed. There sat Obi-Wan with a second bundle. His smile widened when the two new parents looked at the wrapped blanket, one with delight, the other in wonder. "Anakin," he beamed, "would you like to meet your daughter?" The young man nodded so Obi-Wan placed the little girl on his left side. Gingerly so he didn't jostle the IV needle still lodged in the crease of his elbow, Anakin cupped her tiny cheek. Unlike her brother, the little lady was completely bald, but with smooth skin. Her eyes were wide open and the typical shade of baby blue. He tried to raise his arm to pull back the blanket so he could see more of her face, but the motion pulled at the needle and he grunted from the pain.

"Hold out your arm," Obi-Wan said. Anakin did and the master gently extracted the needle. He applied a bacta patch to the puncture wound, wrapped the arm in a soft bandage, and tucked the limb around the baby girl staring at her daddy's face. Then he retreated to the living room. Plenty of time to talk about plans and such later. Right now, he'd just let them spend some time with their children.

He had thought to relax in the living room, but he passed it and went outside. The depth of Anakin's and Padme's happiness was something he'd never felt before. Sure, he felt happy when he finished a mission, and the day his apprentice had been knighted was a day of great joy. But nothing he'd experiences came close to what he'd just seen. _Perhaps it's something only parents get to experience._ Then images flooded his mind, of a little girl with three buns in her hair, with his warm brown eyes. His heart swelled with longing. _Would this be my daughter,_ he wondered, _if I too broke the Code?_ No, he couldn't think like that. The Code was absolute, a jedi's greatest protection against the Dark Side, against despair, fear, anger. _But,_ a traitorous voice whispered, _Anakin broke it and he hasn't gone dark. He's lighter than you are._ The thought shocked him back to reality. He looked around.

Somehow he'd ended up in the jungle next to his Starfighter. In the periphery of his mind, he could feel the mass of the Living Force around him, calling him to come and play. Instead, he turned his thoughts inward. His Force Presence was clean and bright, with a few grey streaks but almost no true black. Anakin had had many more black threads in his Force Presence the last time Obi-Wan looked, before the younger man had taken his Sabbatical. Perhaps he should look again. The jedi master sank to the jungle floor and folded his legs underneath him as he directed his sense towards the mass of light sitting in the slight darkness that indicated the house. It was a beautiful sight, Obi-Wan noted. THe two smaller bundles of life, the twins, shone like speeder headlights, purer than any other person. But of course. They were the son and daughter of the Chosen One, and their presences had not yet been tainted by the world. Padme, as someone with little sensitivity, was more background light than a real presence. So Obi-Wan turned his scrutiny on Anakin.

Anakin was a supernova. Bright light penetrated his somewhat dim surroundings, shifting and changing shape. One Moment it was a sunburst of brilliance, the next it was a haze of light hiding his family from Obi-Wan and then it shifted again into think tendrils that wrapped around the others nearby. Before the form could shift again Obi-Wan spotted a dark strand in the thick cord around the little girl and grabbed it. Sadness heavily tinged with love and understanding swept over him, but didn't drown him. It was as if someone had taken sadness and made it beautiful. _He's going to leave her with Padme,_ Obi-Wan realized. _They've already planned what to do. And that means giving up his daughter._ He lurched out of the meditation and ran a hand through his hair. That sadness was the only dark emotion he'd seen in his apprentice, and it was because of the Jedi Code. To keep secret the fact that he had broken the Code, an act that had given him joy that Obi-Wan had never witnessed before, he would give up one, maybe both of his children if things didn't work out with the Order. Could…could the Code drive someone to the Dark Side? His heart clenched at that thought but, with what he'd just seen, he couldn't simply push the idea away. So with reluctance, he sank back into the Force, hoping for further wisdom.

 **Well, here they are, and quite adorable if I do say so myself. Now, to answer some questions. The babies didn't cry because I don't know if that happens in a C-section delivery and forgot to add it. Let's just say they were lulled into the trance along with Anakin. Anyways, happy Advent and please review this poor attempt at a chapter.**


	31. Playing and Planning

Padme and Anakin sat in the living room, watching as Obi-Wan sat outside with Luke. The little boy's eyes were fixed on the pebble the Jedi floated in front of him. Leia was still asleep in the nursery. "Padme," Anakin started, "my sabbatical's over in a week." She nodded. "We need to talk about what's going to happen to the twins." She nodded again, but she still wouldn't look at him. He pressed on. "Luke is very strong in the Force. I want to let the Council test him."

"Why just him?" Her tone was borderline icy. "Why not Leia too?"

Gently, he touched her face and turned her so he could look into his wife's eyes. "I don't wasn't to take both of them away from you. If I bring Luke to the Council, I can ask to be his master when he's older. Then whenever you visit me, you can see him too, and I can see Leia." He voice broke on the last word and her bitterness melted. They'd known from the start, that there would be sacrifices, but… when she'd looked at the twins, held them for the first time, it felt like love had tied her to them and she didn't want to tear that bond.

But how much worse was it for Ani? They'd been a part of him for the past seven months and it was his fault they couldn't stay together. Her eyes clouded over and Anakin pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"I know," he answered softly. "So am I." He relinquished his hold but kept an arm around her shoulder. "So what will you do with Leia?"

Padme accepted the change in topic and the unspoken agreement that Luke would stay with Ani and said, "I think I'll take her back to Naboo for a while. The queen promised me a reprieve from the Senate once the war was over and Leia might like some of the lakes."

He stomach clenched at the thought of half his family being so far away. "I hope she grows up to be like you," he commented, thankful for the training that kept his voice steady.

"Oh, Ani." She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "We'll come back to Corescant eventually." Then she looked down. "Luke will probably be an amazing Jedi by then."

He arm tightened around her again and Anakin grabbed her hand. "Training takes time, Padme." He laughed a bit. "You can help me fix all his scraped knees and sprained ankles."

She chuckled too, and then frowned. "How would he sprain his ankle?"

Anakin proceeded with great caution. "Sometimes practice can get out of hand." Her frown deepened. "But it's always an accident and we have healers at the Temple to help!"

But her frown didn't relent. "And what about when you're on missions?"

"All knights and master know basic healing before they get a padawan. It's a requirement. Besides, I know more than that now." He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. "I'll take care of him. I promise."

And with that, Padme relaxed into his shoulder and watched her son play. Then a wail came from the hallway and she got up. "I'll get her," she said before she left. She walked into the nursery and picked Leia up. Stroking the smooth, dark head, she calmed her daughter and decided to take her outside for a bit. When she closed the door behind her and turned to walk toward where Obi-Wan played with Luke, Padme smiled at the unconscious grin on Obi-Wan's face. "Having fun," she asked with a laugh in her voice.

The jedi nodded. "He's very intelligent for his age."

Slowly, so as not to jostle Leia, she sat on the ground. "How do you know?"

He lifted the pebble again and Luke tried to grab it. "Some children brought to the Temple are as young as Luke. Masters and knights try to interact with all the initiates, however old they are. That's how we choose our padawans." He gently pried open the little boy's hand before Luke could shove the rock in his mouth. "After Anakin became a knight, Master Yoda asked me to try and choose another to train, so I began interacting with the initiates, especially the younger ones."

Luke wailed at his toy being taken away and then Anakin was suddenly there, picking the baby up and rocking on his heels to quiet the child. He smiled at his wife and his friend. "I think he's tired," the younger man said. "I'll take him inside and put him down for a nap." Anakin walked back into the house.

Padme turned back to Obi-Wan, slightly nervous. "How old does a child have to be before they can be picked as a padawan?"

"Usually their preteens," the man answered, reaching over and stroking Leia's cheek. "Sometimes they get chosen earlier than that."

"Although that assured her somewhat, she still had to ask. "Do they ever get chosen as infants?"

Obi-Wan smoothed out the blanket he and Luke had been playing on. "Not often," he said as Padme laid the tiny girl down on the blanket. "When that does happen, the jedi who discovered them is usually the one who asks to train them." He smiled at his friend. "So if Anakin asks to train Luke after the boy's accepted, the Council will most likely grant the request." Her shoulders sagged in relief and she smiled back at him. "If they don't, I'll ask to train him." He tickled Leia's chin and her tiny feet kicked out weakly. "It's well known that I'm good friends with you and Anakin so you would still be able to see him."

"Thank you," she said. Padme had worried about that.

"It's fine," he said. Obi-Wan got up then and headed back into the house. "I hope I see Leia again soon."

"What are you talking about?" Padme was confused.

He turned back to her and his smile was slightly sad. "I'm going back to the Temple tonight. It's a bit sooner than I'd thought, but Mace asked me to. He and Master Yoda need to talk to Anakin and me about something, but they're waiting until he comes back on his own. It's one of the rules about Sabbaticals, that the jedi only comes back when they're ready. But I'm not technically on Sabbatical, so they can order me to come back." He shrugged. "It was time for me to head back anyway." And he walked into the house.

Padme picked up Leia and gently bopped her on the nose with a fingertip. "What are you and I going to do with all these jedi?"

 **Well, the twins are out and on their own, but now how will Anakin and Padme deal with the kids' futures? Please Review!**


	32. Last Day as a Family

It was their last day on Docilium and the new parents decided to spend most of it outside. With a blanket, a packed lunch for the two adults, and a thermos of warm formula for the twins, Anakin and Padme played with Luke and Leia in the grassy backyard by Anakin's fighter. Their children couldn't clearly see things yet, but they liked the warm sunshine. Leia in particular, her daddy noticed, would screw her little face up whenever a shadow passed over her. Grinning a bit, Ani moved so that his shadow covered her face, but just before she started whining, he moved and she relaxed. Her little feet squirmed and he grabbed one. She kicked. "Okay, princess," the jedi teased as he let go.

A gurgle reached his ears and he glanced away from his baby girl. Padme was brushing a stem of grass across the back of Luke's hand. His tiny hands flailed as he tried to grab the piece of green. One tiny finger brushed the blade of grass and Padme let him grab the bit of grass. Then the boy tried to put it in his mouth and she jerked it back. "Nope, not in your mouth, Lukey Duke." Anakin smiled at the scene.

Gently, he picked up Leia from the blanket and rocked her a bit in his arms. Her motions slowed and he watched as her eyes closed. He set her down on the blanket again and started to unpack the food.

"Ani," Padme started. "After you and Luke are back at the Temple, I want to take Leia back to Naboo for a while."

The knight stopped laying out the food and sat beside her and Luke. "Why?"

"I want my family to meet Leia." She ran a finger down her son's cheek and he turned his face into the touch. She continued, "I want my family to meet her. I'll say I adopted her after her family was killed in the war. She resembles you more than me. That way, if she and Luke have to stay separated, she'll have a family, like Luke will have the Order." She laughed a little as Luke found her fingertip and started sucking on it. "I think he's hungry."

Padme reached around her husband and grabbed the thermos of formula. Anakin passed her a bottle and rubber top and she fixed up the bottle with slightly awkward hands. They didn't talk while she lifted Luke into her arms and helped him latch onto the cap. "How is C3PO doing with them?" Anakin asked.

The Senator laughed. "It's been interesting, but they've sort of accepted him now. What about R2D2?"

Ani shrugged. "I left him with Obi-Wan," he answered. "He didn't say much, only that R2 helped when he was battling Dooku, but I think he got hurt on the flight back. Obi-Wan had to take him in for repairs right after he got back to the Temple. I hope they let me use him again when I start taking missions." He saw her slightly worried face and smoothed back her hair. "The war is over, Padme. They caught Darth Sidious. It's not going to be super dangerous for the Jedi anymore." He looked down at Luke and grinned. "Looks like he's finished. We should eat too."

* * *

She didn't mean to see it. She was just getting a drink of water in the night, but she glanced into the nursery on her way back to her bedroom. Padme just wanted to check on the kids. But what she was made her halt.

Strong moonlight filtered in through the room's large window and outlined a tall figure standing by the cradle. Barely, Padme made out the forms of Luke resting in his blue blanket and Leia in her white one. Then the figure reached down, picked up the tiny girl and held her close. He stood like that for a long time before his shoulders started to shake and he held Leia even tighter. Padme heard a sharp intake of breath and tore herself away. _Oh Anakin._

When he came back to the bed, Padme was turned away from him so he didn't see her tears.

 **I am so sorry this took so long! But there was Christmas and traveling and car accidents and surgery and flat tires...Seriously, I've had a crazy few weeks. But don't worry, I'll try my best to update more regularly. Still, this story is close to finished.**

 **Please Review! I really miss all of you guys.**


	33. Back in the Temple

Anakin and Padme had traveled back to Corescant separately, each with one of the twins, which was a very good thing for Anakin and their wish to keep both their marriage and kids safe and secret. The minute he had reported in to the Council that he had returned from Sabbatical, they had summoned him to appear before them the next day. The morning of his meeting with the Council, Obi-Wan visited Anakin in his rooms. "I will do all I can," he'd promised the young father.

 _That doesn't really help,_ Anakin worried. He was sitting in the hallway just outside the Council Chamber with Luke sleeping tightly clutched in his arms. His stomach was in knots and he had to forcibly keep his hold from tightening. He did not want to hurt Luke. Releasing his anxiety into the Force did no good. It just kept coming back.

Mace's voice, slightly more tinny from the electronic comm system, spoke out into the hallway. "Jedi Skywalker, the Council will see you now." The door slid open and Anakin got up. _Well, here goes,_ he thought as he walked into the proverbial lion's den.

Yoda's eyes narrowed when he saw the young knight. He was more tightly shielded than before, but the bundle in his arms radiated Light. "Summoned you about your Sabbatical, we have. But first, explain you will, the child." _What you hide also,_ the Grand Master thought. _Find the truth, I will._

Drawing his shield even tighter around him, Anakin answered, "I went on Sabbatical to ask the Force if I was ready for a padawan learner. It answered me with this child." He gently loosened Luke's blanket so his face was more visible to the masters. "The boy is strong with the Force and was given to me to train."

"He was abandoned with you?" Mace questioned. If someone had found that private retreat, then its security was compromised and they might have to stop using it. What was worse was that someone had discovered it was occupied. An anonymous abandonment like this left so many questions, too many for Mace's liking.

"No," Anakin replied and Mace's thoughts halted. "His mother knew he was Force sensitive and gave him to me to train. I took care of him for the last month or so and I believe the Force wants me to train him." Technically not a lie, since it was true from a certain point of view.

But Yoda was not convinced. There was something more here. The Force eddied and swirled around the two beings as if they were one. Come to think of it, he'd seen this type of bond before. But where? The questioning continued. "Did you know his woman," Mace asked.

Anakin looked at master Kenobi and the man nodded undetectably. "Yes," the knight answered. "I met her on a previous mission and noticed she could feel the Force. I believe that was how she found me on Docilium."

Yoda continued examining the bond. It wasn't like the bond between a master and apprentice, it had none of that careful control. Actually, the bond was so rough that the green master was surprised no one else had noticed it. Was Skywalker hiding the bond? "Then why did you not bring her before us," Mace asked.

 _Thank the Force that Obi-Wan worked out the story with me before the meeting,_ Ani thought as he answered. "I did not thing she was strong enough to be trained. At best, she would have been sent to Bandomeer, but she already had a home there, Master Windu. I saw no reason to take her from that."

Bandomeer! Yoda's questing mind latched onto the name. That was where he'd felt this sort of bond before, albeit on a much weaker level. Many of the men and women on the planet had married and…had…children. The master's thoughts calmed and sorrow washed through him. This type of bond only happened between a Force sensitive parent and Force sensitive son or daughter. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker was trying to hide just such a bond with this infant even as he tried to convince the Council to let his raise the boy. Yoda raised a clawed hand and Mace stopped his questioning. "Skywalker, your son, the boy is. Why hide this, you do?"

Uproar overtook the Council. Anakin shouted denials, several masters placed their hand on the arms of their seats as if to rise to their feet. Others shouted at the young knight, asking how he could have been so foolish and irresponsible. One or two called for his expulsion from the Order. Mace scowled at Anakin but said nothing to the boy, trying instead to rein in the cacophony instead, and very much failing. Master Yoda remained silent.

A sharp cry pierced the clamor and many of the masters fell silent. The noise had woken the tiny boy and Anakin quickly started rocking his son, speaking nonsense in a low tone. As more and more of the arguing jedi fell silent and watched the pair, Yoda examined young Skywalker's Force presence. He had a feeling that this, he needed to see. In the way of details, there wasn't much. Tight shielding his all of his thoughts, but Yoda could get a sense of his overall emotional state. What he found was puzzling in the extreme, but also gave him hope.

In the days since his interview with Bant, he had spoken with many other jedi, from all ranks. Some, like the healer, had fallen into melancholy. When he'd interviewed Obi-Wan after the man returned from his visit with Anakin about two weeks ago, he'd happily noted that the was hadn't diminished the master's bright Force presence. A fact that was due largely to his steadfast friendship with his former apprentice. _Like brothers, they are,_ Yoda had thought at the time.

And now Anakin, who'd been worryingly dark for a long time, except for the last several months, stood before the Council shining like the brightest beacon with his son clutched in his arms. This required further investigation and meditation, and Yoda wouldn't get either if father and son were thrown out. "Mmmm," he muttered and the sound rattled around the chamber, echoing alongside the baby's fading cries. When the child had finally gone back to sleep, Yoda said, "Unusual, this is. Gather again in two days, we will to decide what to do. Until then, meditate we all should on this matter. Skywalker?" The man looked up from his slumbering son. "Wish to speak with you, I do. Stay in your quarters, you will, until then." The door opened and Anakin bowed out of the room.

Mace waited until the boy had left before he asked, "Master Yoda, Skywalker has broken the Jedi Code. Why are you allowing him to stay?" The rest of the Council was also quiet. Everyone wanted to hear the response.

The oldest master nodded. "Noticed a change in the Order, I have. Darkness clouds many of us. Yet, reside in Anakin, it no longer does, though it did before. Wish, I do, to know how and why." The he rested his head back against his chair. The matter was now clearly closed. "What next have we to discuss?"

Mace glanced at a small screen set into the arm of his chair. "In an effort to recover from the war, the Senate has started elections for a new Supreme Chancellor."

Back in his rooms, Anakin gently laid Luke in his makeshift cradle and picked up his comm link. He flicked it on and asked "Padme?"

"Anakin!" He smiled at her relieved reply. "So you finished already? How did it go?"

He winced. "Not good. Yoda figured out about Luke. I might be expelled for this. Master Yoda said he wanted to talk to me before they met again in two days. That's when they'll decide."

There was a sharp intake of breath from the other end followed by a pause. He could almost see her calming herself down and running the pros and cons through her mind. "Well," she started, "if you were expelled, we wouldn't have to split up the twins. I can hire you as my personal pilot so you can always travel with me, and we can bring Luke and Leia with us-"

"Padme," he interrupted, "the Council might take Luke even if they expel me." Silence from the other end. "But we can think about this all in two days, when we know what's actually going to happen. Do you want to come see Luke and me?"

When she spoke, his wife sounded unsteady. "Are we allowed to?"

He shrugged reflexively. "They already know about Luke, you and Leia won't make much of a difference." Fussing sounds came from the cradle. "I've got to go, Luke just woke up. Call if you're coming." And he hung up.

 **Finally! The scene that spawned the summary gets here! What did you guys think? Please Review!**


	34. The Final Verdict

About three hours later Mace announced that the meeting was concluded and the various masters filed out of the room. Obi-Wan got up out of his chair, but was stopped by a tug in his consciousness. Looking back, he saw Yoda staring at him. He sighed and sat back down. When the chamber had emptied besides the two of them, Master Yoda asked, "Knew, you did?" Obi-Wan released a sigh and nodded. "Hide it, why did you?"

"Partly because I was afraid," he answered honestly. Hiding from Master Yoda wasn't worth the trouble. "The Jedi mean much to me, Master Yoda. I feared that my silence would be seen as approval of Anakin's actions and that I would share his punishment."

"But the main reason, it is not."

Obi-Wan sighed again. "Master Yoda, you know what he was like before. He was angry, disrespectful, flippant-" He felt Yoda's reproaching gaze and halted his list of Anakin's faults. "When I first saw him when I went to visit, his Force Presence and almost everything about him had changed." A smile touched his lips. "He was brighter than ever before, even when he was just a boy. I'd noticed some of the changes before he left, but…" He ran a hand through his ginger hair. "It was a bit staggering."

Yoda nodded. "After you knew, what then?"

Obi-Wan ran a hand through his hair again and gestured at the room and other chairs. "I reacted the same way most of the Council did. But he'd disabled both of our fighters and all the accessible comm systems, so I had to stay there. So since he had me trapped anyway I decided to look closer into the matter, to find out more about the shift in him and if the two things were connected."

"You did this, how?" Yoda penetrated the younger master with a stare older that all the master on the Council put together.

"I looked at his Force Presence, and listened to his and Padme's reasons for doing all of this."

"Find something, you did?"

"Yes," he answered, his mind going back to those moments. "Anakin told me that what he did to save…Luke was no different than what a jedi is meant to do." He just remembered not to mention Leia. If the Council took Luke for training but expelled Anakin, that little girl would be all the couple had left.

But Yoda shook his head. "The same, they are not. Compassion is a jedi's calling not feelings such as love. Too changeable are feelings."

"I said the same," Obi-Wan countered. "But Anakin told me that love is a choice, not just a feeling." He thought back to that conversation in the kitchen on Docilium. "Every day, one chooses to put another's wellbeing and happiness before one's own. That is the kind of Love he has for Luke."

"Luke?"

"His son." He look at the wizened master as he played one more card. "Master Yoda, when I looked at his Force Presence after he told me, I scanned some of the strands. The brightest, strongest strand of his Force Presence was his love for Luke. Becoming a father has changed him for the better, I am certain of it."

Master Yoda nodded, but the wrinkles between his eyes were still deepened with worry. "Still, broke the code he did. Set a precedent, it would, if we allowed him to remain." Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak again, but Yoda got to his feet, signaling an end to the conversation. "Meditate on what you have said, I will." Then Obi-Wan got up and they left the room together.

* * *

"Jedi Skywalker." Mace said, "we have thought long and hard about your situation and how to resolve it. Masters Senshin and Kenobi examined your son and deemed him a good candidate for training. However," he continued, forestalling Anakin's gratitude, "you will not be the one to train him."

The young man's face fell, but he stood tall and asked, "then who will be his master?"

Obi-Wan stood and answered. "I will."

Anakin wanted to race over and hug the older man but held his calm demeanor in place. Mace spoke again. "Normally, for breaking the Code as you have, you would be expelled. But things have recently come to the attention of this Council. These incidents and movements in the Force suggest that the Code is in need of revision." Surprise flickered across Anakin's face. This was news to him. But Mace was still talking. "You will remain in the Order, but under the close scrutiny of the Council. In time you may be deemed fit to go on missions, but you will never train an apprentice or have a seat on this Council. For the present, you will be assigned to Temple duties."

 **This is the last chapter in this story. Honestly, I'm just tired of writing the same story for over a year and want to work in other fandoms for a while. If someone wishes to take it up, fill in the holes, I invite them to do so. I hope you enjoyed this story.**


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